Redux
by hellomynameis -lilly
Summary: The show reinvented basically. Lilly doesn't die, although somehow everything changes. LoVe. Rated M later on. R&R pretty please?
1. Prologue

Hello folks

Hello folks. I am rather new to this writing thing, so sorry if it sucks. I just kinda had this in my head and I wanted to write it all out. This is one of two ideas for a season one redux, and I just wrote this one first. So without further ado...

Chapter One

-Seventeen Years-

Friday, September 26th

"Veronica Mars, you get your skinny butt over here!" Lilly honks the horn of her car loudly three times. Veronica runs towards the car, working her way through the crowd of students all trying to get to their cars after a long school day. She opens the door and slides into the passenger seat, tossing her bag in the back seat.

"Welllll aren't you going to wish me a happy birthday?" Lilly asked, maneuvering the car out of the Neptune High parking lot and heading off down the road.

"Lilly, your birthday's not until tomorrow," Veronica replied.

"Yes, but really it should be some sort of national holiday or something. The day that the fabulous Lilly Kane was born is worthy of a three day nonstop partying extravaganza!"

"Which is exactly what we're doing!" Veronica said with a laugh.

"Oh and by the way, our fake ID's came back. My friend down at Hearst made them for me, and they look absolutely real. Veronica Mars you are officially 21!" Lilly exclaimed, taking out two ID's from the glove compartment and handing one to Veronica.

"So I'm guessing we're going to use these to sneak into clubs?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Veronica smiled and Lilly turned up the music, and they sang along to whatever pop song was playing.

The two girls were on their way to Los Angeles for the weekend to celebrate Lilly's birthday. At least that was part of it. Lilly had recently broken up with Logan, which wasn't really a big deal considering that they broke up and got back together again every other week. No, the big thing was that Veronica and Duncan had broken up. Lately Duncan had become passive and distant, and Veronica didn't know what to do with him. She still loved him, but she told herself it was for the better. Lilly knew her best friend well, and even though she said she wasn't hurting, she knew that Veronica was terribly upset by it. So Lilly proposed the trip so as to cheer her friend up and get her to move on, or at least put her in the right direction.

They arrived in LA at around 5:00 and they checked into their hotel. As soon as they were settled in their room, Lilly opened Veronica's bag and dug through it's contents.

"Veronica, this simply will not do. None of these clothes are good for clubbing! When are you going to realize that pink and yellow and soft blues are not you! You're not preppy or cute, you are edgy and rocker-chick! Now come, we still have time before we have to get ready so I'm taking you shopping."

"Lilly I don't have a lot of money."

"I've got Daddy Dearest's platinum card... c'mon, pleeeeease." Lilly got on her knees, clasping her hands together, and pouted.

"Alright, fine. Just don't go overboard."

"No promises!" Lilly shrieked, grabbing her bag and bolting out the front door, leaving Veronica to try and catch up to her.

Several hours and countless bags later Lilly and Veronica had made all their purchases and promptly made themselves look as sexy as possible to prepare for their night out. They grabbed their fake ID's and were soon off for a night of drinking, dancing, men, and illegal debauchery.

--

Monday, September 29th

The sound of the alarm clock woke up Veronica abruptly. She smacked the alarm clock to shut it off and reluctantly got out of bed. She still had a massive hangover from the weekend in LA with Lilly, and she really didn't want to go to school today.

She grumpily made herself some breakfast and went through all the necessary steps to make herself not look like she'd just spent the last three days doing nothing but partying. She pulled on a pair of jeans and a navy polo and straightened her hair and finished it off with a black headband. Besides the obvious frown on her face, you couldn't tell that she was the least bit unwell.

She pulled into the parking lot at Neptune High and when she got out was immediately bumped into a large body. She was about to say excuse me when the person just kept on walking, looking as if they were in a rush. She briefly wondered what it was for but then shrugged it off. She walked into the main doors and crashed smack into someone else.

"I really need to stop crashing into people," She muttered from the floor.

"I concur. And I resent being referred to as 'people.' " The person said. Veronica jumped at the voice. She recognized it.

"Logan!" She exclaimed. Logan offered her a hand and lifted her to her feet.

"Logan is the name, Legend is the sentiment," he deadpanned.

"Are we on speaking terms now?" She asked cautiously. Ever since she'd told Lilly about Logan kissing Yolanda about a week ago things had been strained at best between them.

"It's not your fault. If I'd seen you kissing another guy I would've told..." Logan trailed off at this, realizing that Duncan and Veronica were no longer together.

"So. Anyways. I hear there's this new thing called class, that apparently we're supposed to attend. We should try it out." He said, trying to coverup his slip. Veronica smiled and Logan put his arm around her shoulders.

People cleared the way for them as they walked, and the occasional whisper was heard.

"You know, you really think there'd be more to gossip about. We haven't even done anything and already I'm betting people think I'm banging you," Logan said with an ironic smile.

"This is Neptune, Logan. Rumors are like air here." Veronica frowned and Logan squeezed her shoulder, and together they walked to their first class.

--

"So, Veronica, are you gonna spill the secret on all the rumors I heard this morning or do I have to tip you over?"

"Are you really dating Logan? How does Duncan feel?"

"Is he a good kisser?"

Veronica was bombarded with questions in the hallway heading out to lunch, and she mostly just ignored them. Apparently there really wasn't anything else to gossip about lately.

She sat down at her usual table where Lilly was filing her nails and resting her feet on Dick's lap.

"Hey Lilly," Veronica said, sitting down. She was slightly worried that Lilly would believe the rumors.

"Ronica, you should hear what people are saying about you and Logan," Lilly said, not looking up when Veronica spoke to her. "They're saying some VERY interesting things." Veronica's face went white and she looked very scared. Lilly glanced up at her and burst out laughing.

"Oh Ronica, I'm sorry, the look was priceless. You should know that I'd never believe all the stupid little gossips. This school hasn't had anything to gossip about, so they just made something out of nothing, they do it all the time. And even if I did I wouldn't care about you and him." Lilly grinned and Veronica smiled, relieved.

Soon Duncan and Logan arrived with pizza. Veronica practically grabbed it from their hands. She immediately began tearing through her first peice.

"God, Ronnie, did someone forget to feed you this morning?" Logan asked, chuckling.

"Shutup. Starving. Need food," Veronica said. Lilly grabbed a piece and took her feet off of Dick.

"So Logan I hear you've been deflowering our little Veronica. I heard that you've been like animals, 'doing it everywhere,' " Lilly said nonchalantly. Logan smiled and Veronica blushed a little but also smiled. Duncan's face went a little rigid.

"Well you know I really just can't get enough of her. What do you think, Sugarpuss, which was better: the journalism room or Clemmons' desk?" Logan asked, sliding next to Veronica and putting his arm around her.

"Oh definitely Clemmons' desk," Veronica replied, laughing. Lilly grinned, imagining all the dirty things her best friend and ex-boyfriend could get up to. Duncan frowned, not liking his friend flirting with Veronica, and Dick gave a catcall of appreciation.

"Hey, dude. Light bulb just went off in my head. We should definitely have an orgy in the Clemster's office!" Dick looked so excited about his idea that everyone at the table was forced to laugh.

--

The rest of the day went by fairly quickly for Veronica, with ditzy and bitchy 09er girls still asking her questions about Logan for the rest of the day. As the rumors got more and more ridiculous, Logan and Veronica laughed about them more. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't the least bit embarrassed by them, because it was just Veronica. She wasn't 'out there' about her sexuality, and the thought of sex still made her blush. She was better about it now, but the really innocent Veronica still peeked out sometimes.

As she was walking out towards the parking lot at the end of school, she noticed the guy she'd bumped into that morning and she saw that he was walking in the opposite direction as everyone else. He looked incredibly suspicious, so quietly she followed him behind the gym out to the back of the school. She hung back, not wanting to be seen. The guy hurried past the gym, with Veronica struggling to keep up without being seen. She tried to look as inconspicuous as possible, but it was hard because nobody else was around. The guy went into a slight jog as he passed the back of the school. Veronica hid behind a tree when she saw another guy in a hood standing by a car, waiting for the other man. Quickly, she dug out a napkin and and a pen and jotted down the license plate number of the car. Before she could take a picture, the guys got into the car and drove away. She'd lost them. Sighing, she began to walk back in the direction she'd come and dialed Lilly's number.

"Hello, the Royal Highness is speaking," Lilly answered.

"Hey, Lil."

"Veronica! Hey, where are you? You said you'd meet me at my car right after school."

"I just had to do something really quickly, but it took me longer than expected," She said, glancing around to make sure the car was nowhere in sight.

"Well get your skinny little butt over here before Donut bores me to death!"

"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can, Lil." Veronica hung up the phone and sighed, disappointed that she'd lost them. She decided that she'd look through Lilly's yearbook to see if she could recognize the guy.

She was in Lilly's room a while later flipping through the yearbook, but she couldn't find the guy, and she was getting frustrated.

"Lilly, do you know a guy that's about 6'2, black hair, brown eyes, I think spanish or italian, pretty muscular, wears a black leather coat and drives a black, crappy '65 Chevy Impala?"

"No, I don't, but I would be really interested to know this guy. You don't who he is?" Lilly asked, plopping down on her bed beside Veronica.

"No, I don't, I saw him at school earlier and I can't find him in any of the yearbooks. He's not a student, and he's not faculty either."

"Well maybe he'll show up in the next few days. And when he does, tell me."

"Why?"

"So I can either work my magic on him or get to do a little espionage. Either way, I still get a thrill out of it." The two girls laughed.

--

Wednesday, October 1st

Veronica had kept an eye out the last few days for the man, but he never showed. If he did, he made sure to steer clear of Veronica. The curious part of her brain was going out of control, telling her to do some snooping, but the rational part was telling her to let it go.

The gossip over her and Logan quieted down too, because it was discovered that Caitlin Ford had cheated on John Enbom with one of the PCH bikers.

She was sitting at the usual lunchtable watching as Enbom sat in a sulky, depressed manner as Caitlin ran off to the parking lot, getting on the biker's motorcycle and driving away.

"Gee, I'd hate to be that guy," said Logan, plopping down into the seat next to her holding a carton of chinese food. Veronica took it from his hands saying 'gimme!'"

"So much food, so tiny a person," Logan sighed. Lilly walked towards the table and sat down, with Dick and Duncan at her heels.

"Can you believe that Caitlin just ran off with Chardo, that biker guy? In front of everyone? She's gonna have hell to pay tomorrow," Lilly said, flipping her hair. She and Veronica immediately went into a fast-paced, barely understandable, if-you-could-call-it-a-conversation that the boys tried to follow, but eventually gave up.

"So. Dude. Let us discuss who is throwing the Halloween partay this year, shall we?" Dick said.

"Man, it's almost a month away. We can just put it together like, 3 days ahead of time," Logan said, rolling his eyes.

"I disagree, my party-planning partner in crime, it is never too early to party, or plan." Duncan shook his head and Logan smiled slightly.

"So, dude, I heard there was this hot freshmen that likes it freaky. I think she needs to be introduced to the Dick for some good old-fashioned lovin'. And by good old-fashioned I mean the use of whips and maybe even chains," Dick continued, going off to his little fantasy land.

"Okay, man, I really don't need to hear more about your prospective sex life," Logan laughed. Lilly and Veronica had finally stopped their girl talk and had listened to Dick talk about the girl.

"Dick!"

"You're disgusting!"

"A shame to the human race!"

"An absolute dirty dog!" The girls went back and forth and closed in around Dick till one of them was practically yelling in each ear. Duncan and Logan were laughing like mad and Dick looked severely uncomfortable and tried to push them away.

"You guys suck." Dick looked incredibly pissed off and pouty, which just made the other people at the table laugh.

--

Friday, October 3rd

Veronica awoke with a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she didn't know why. She tried to brush it aside but the nagging feeling persisted. She forced herself to get out of bed and choked down breakfast, and once again got herself ready for the day.

She got in her car and began to drive to school, when her phone buzzed in her pocket. The Spice Girls' "Wannabe" played out and Veronica knew it was Lilly.

"Hey Lil."

"Veronica, did you know that there's a pep squad car wash today?"

"Yeah, I reminded you last night, remember?"

"No! And I had plans to go out with this guy tonight." Veronica could picture Lilly's pout.

"Can't we ditch?" Lilly continued. Veronica sighed.

"Lilly, we ditched the last two events when we were in LA. If we don't go then Ms. Stafford's gonna kill us. Or at least Shelley and Madison will."

"Fine! But you owe me big time, Ronica. This is like Colin Farrell-in-my-stocking-this-year big."

"Alright, Lil, but I may not be willing to hand him over so easily, he is one hell of a kisser," Veronica laughed. Lilly scoffed and hung up the phone, which only made Veronica laugh more.

Later on, Logan and Duncan were sitting in Logan's living room discussing their plans for that night, and they decided to call Lilly and Veronica. Lilly answered and put it on speakerphone.

"Hello ladies, would you care to join me and DK tonight for a little dinner and perhaps a sex party if we're up to it?" The girls could hear Duncan protest loudly in the background. They heard some muffled noises and then Duncan's protests stopped and Logan was on the phone again.

"Sorry, can't, RONICA made me go to the boring-as-hell not-so-peppy pep squad car wash." Lilly glared at Veronica, who shrugged.

"Ah man, can't you guys skip?" Logan whined, and the girls thought they heard Duncan's yells being muffled with a pillow or something.

"Oh, but Logan, Lilly and I will be using sponges with lots of soap and water, bending and rolling all over the cars in our small shorts and tight tee shirts..." Veronica trailed off and Lilly put a hand over her mouth to stop her laugh. There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment.

"You know my car's been looking a bit grimy lately... what do you think, DK?" There was a brief shuffling noise and then Duncan yelled,

"LOGAN I'M GONNA SHOOT YOU TO LAST TUESDAY!"

About 20 minutes later, Logan's beast of a car, the yellow Xterra, pulled into the car wash right where Lilly and Veronica were working.

"Oh ladies," Logan called out from the front seat, rolling his windows downed. Lilly and Veronica rolled their eyes. "I want this car THOROUGHLY cleaned. Absolutely no spots missing." Duncan groaned and Logan grinned. And Veronica and Lilly set to work on his car, having a contest to see who could do the most seductive move to get a reaction from Logan, laughing and joking all the while.

Needless to say, Logan had a lot of fun.

After they'd finished, Veronica and Lilly were rolling on the ground with laughter, and Duncan was chuckling too. Logan was frowning.

"You guys suck, you know? You had to go and ruin a perfectly good fantasy for me," Logan whined with his angry face on.

"Yes, but dumping a bucket of cold water on you was JUST what you needed after that little show," Lilly laughed. Logan was dripping water everywhere, and with his angry face he looked like a drowned cat. Lilly and Veronica recovered from their laughing fit and Veronica made an announcement.

"Alright, as much fun as that was, I have to get home. I'm spending the night with the 'rents."

"Aww Ronica, do you have to? You already ruined my plans for tonight," Lilly reminded.

"Lil, I can't. My dad's been busy lately, we don't see each other much anymore, and you know how we both hate that."

"Fiiiine. But you owe me Jude Law to go along with Colin Farrell," Lilly said, pouting. Veronica smiled and said goodbye to Duncan and Logan, then gathered her jacket and purse and headed to her car.

She opened her car door when suddenly she heard a noise behind her. She turned around to face the person. She caught a fleeting image of the man before her vision getting blurry. It was the man she'd seen at school. She was faintly aware of blood dripping on the passenger seat of the car, and her being carried and put into the man's car. And then everything went black.

--

sorry if it doesn't make a lot of sense, I just needed to introduce the characters and the story and everything.

so that was the first chapter. :

review?


	2. The Italian Job

Sorry, I had some editing problems on the first chapter, it was meant to be the prologue

Sorry, I had some editing problems on the first chapter, it was meant to be the prologue. THIS is the real chapter one. And I'm posting it so soon because the prologue was just to introduce the story. So on with the show...

Chapter One

-The Italian Job-

Monday, October 6th

Neptune was a mess. As opposed to it's normal state of disarray.

After Veronica never came home to have dinner with her parents and Veronica's phone was off, Keith called Lilly, who told him that she'd said she was going straight to meet him. Keith asked her to look for Veronica's car at the car wash and that he'd follow her there. Lilly had gotten off the phone and turned to Logan and Duncan, who were all lounging at the Kane's house.

"What's going on, Lil?" Duncan asked. Lilly didn't answer, just got up and started walking towards the door, grabbing her keys along the way. She had a stoic expression on her face, and the boys exchanged a look before scrambling up and running after her.

"Lilly, what's wrong? Why was Mr. Mars asking about Veronica?" Duncan asked, persistent. Lilly still didn't answer.

"Lil, tell. us. what's. wrong," Logan said, shaking her shoulders. Lilly looked up with tears in her eyes.

"Veronica never went home."

"So?" Logan asked. "She's probably just out somewhere running an errand or whatever."

"Logan, her phone is off, that was four hours ago and you KNOW it's not like Veronica to go off and skip dinner with her parents!" Lilly jerked out of his grasp and flung the car door open, and the boys quickly got in.

The car was silent on the way to the car wash, all three of the teenagers contemplating everything, trying to answer their unvoiced questions. Lilly eventually pulled the car into the parking lot and was met with the sight of 4 police cars and an ambulance. Lilly gasped and didn't bother to park the car properly, she just shut it off and jumped out of the car, Duncan and Logan on her heels.

"Out of my way! Out of my goddamn way, you bastards!" Lilly screeched, shoving aside police officers to get to where Keith Mars was standing. Lilly screamed when she saw what he was looking at.

The passenger door to Veronica's LeBaron was open and on the middle of the passenger seat was a huge, red, blood stain.

Keith Mars was stadning rigid, clenching and unclenching his fists, silent tears rolling down his face. Lilly dropped to her knees and the tears started to flow freely. She saw Logan and Duncan finally push their way through the commotion and she would remember the reactions for a long time.

Duncan stood in shock, finally collapsing on the ground, shaking, while repeating incomprehensible words, and an EMT tried to help him up and onto an ambulance, but he went into an epileptic fit and started yelling and kicking and trying to hurt the EMT any way he could, and eventually another two had to come and force him off the EMT and sedate him to calm him down.

Logan had seen the blood and stood still, staring at it, for the longest time. When he snapped out of it, he turned to the van right beside him, and with an angry roar, he punched the wall of the van. A sickening noise was heard, and Lilly wasn't sure whether it was the van or Logan's hand. Turns out, Logan had left a sizeable dent in the sie of the van, and an EMT rushed over and tried to attend to his hand, all the while tears streaming down his face.

Lilly vaguely remembered a man in a blue coat telling Keith that the amount of blood was survivable, and that they didn't know if it was Veronica's yet.

'Stupid bastard.' Lilly thought. 'Of course it's Veronica's.'

The rest of the night passed in a blur, and Lilly didn't particularly want to relive it.

But that was three days ago.

When the news broke out that the sheriff's daughter had been kidnapped, the reactions varied greatly.

The 09ers were gossiping about it nonstop, and very few actually cared about Veronica's welfare. A few worried ones approached Duncan when he was at school, as he told her, like Meg, Luke, Dick surprisingly, and a junior named Adrian who was Veronica and Lilly's friend.

Duncan and Logan had gone to school today to clear out the rumors and make sure nobody badtalked Veronica. That, and Celeste forced Duncan to go (she tried to force Lilly, but she was too stubborn. An inherited gene.) and Logan wanted to be there for his best friend. He knew he wasn't over Veronica, and that he couldn't handle everyone at school talking about her by himself.

Lilly spent the day in bed, watching TV and surfing the internet... doing mundane things and wishing that her best friend would come back. She even tried slightly to pray to God, even though she felt ridiculous for talking to her ceiling. She was desperate.

Keith was faring no better. Lianne had picked the perfect time to pick up her heavy drinking again, and he was trying to keep a straight and focused perspective while dealing with Veronica's - his daughter's- case. He tried to keep it professional, but every day the clock went by he got more and more angrier and depressed. He just wanted his baby girl back.

The blood in the car was tested for DNA, which it proved to be Veronica's. The kidnappers left no fingerprints or blood or hair or anything that they could use, and the parking lot wasn't under surveilance. There was no eyewitness and there were too many variables to check all the roads.

All they had was some tire track marks on the asphalt. Lilly had said that the tracks weren't there earlier in the day.

There was no other evidence.

Lilly stared up at her ceiling, replaying the days before Veronica's kidnap. She remembered the car wash that they'd had so much fun at. The memory hurt now. She remembered calling her in the morning. She also remembered Veronica flipping through her yearbook looking for someone...

Suddenly Lilly sat up in bed. That was it. She'd been suspicious of a guy that was hanging around Neptune High.

Lilly frantically grabbed her cell phone, scrolling down to the contact that Veronica had put in in case of emergencies, Mr. Mars.

"Sheriff Keith Mars," Veronica's dad answered.

"Mr. Mars!" Lilly practically screamed.

"Lilly? What's wrong?" He asked, very concerned.

"I remembered something Veronica said to me a couple days before... the.. kidnap about a suspicious guy hanging around Neptune High!" Lilly exclaimed. There was silence on the other end.

"Mr. Mars?"

"Come down to the station. Tell me everything you know." His voice was stony, and Lilly thought he sounded angry. But what father wouldn't be? He disconnected the line and Lilly grabbed a jacket and her keys and ran out her door, zooming past Duncan, leaving him with a confused look on his face.

She drove to the sheriff's department and ran up the front steps, not bothering to sit around and wait her turn, and ran into Keith's office.

He looked up at her when she entered, panting heavily, and motioned for her to sit down. He had a piece of a paper on his desk, and a pen. She assumed he was going to write down whatever she said.

"You said she said something about a suspicious guy around the high school? Why did she think he was suspicious?" Keith asked.

"She said that she'd seen him earlier that day at school, but that she didn't recognize him. She said he wasn't going into the school, that he looked like he was going towards the back of it somewhere. When she came over to my house that afternoon, she looked through all my yearbooks and found out that he wasn't a student or on the staff." Keith jotted down what she said.

"Did she seem concerned?"

"Yeah, a little bit. She was late coming to my house so I assume she followed him for a little while." Lilly sighed. She hoped this was helpful.

"Did she mention any details about the person that could be helpful?"

"She said he was about 6'2, had blackish-brown hair, brown eyes, muscular build, she thought he was spanish or italian or something, and that he wore a black leather coat. Oh, and that he drove a.. black, '65 Chevy impala that was kind of crapped-out. I think," Lilly finished. Keith looked up, and he gave a small, but genuine, smile.

"Lilly, this is great. Thank you." His smile died a bit and then he put on his sheriff-voice.

"If you remember anything else, just give us a call." Lilly nodded and exited the office.

Keith sighed at his desk and pressed the intercom.

"Sacks, bring me Veronica's purse from evidence."

--

Veronica didn't know where she was. All she knew was that it was a large room with no lights and on padlocked door. No windows. There was a chair in the middle of the room that they had tied her to earlier and hurt her in various ways, and they kept asking questions about what she'd seen. Refusing to cry, she told them she hadn't seen anything. They'd whipped her back and made tiny cuts on her face and arms. They'd kicked her quite a bit too. One had kicked over the chair and had kicked her head accidentally, knocking her out.

She didn't know what time it was, but she figured she was out for a while. And that meant that they'd be back soon.

One cut on her arm was starting to look infected, and she knew that her left wrist was broken. She also knew that she had an enormous gash on her head from when the man had hit her over the head when she was kidnapped, and she knew that it had to be treated immediately to fully heal, but wouldn't. She had to stay alive as long as possible, so that her dad could find her.

There were three men that usually came. The one that she'd seen around Neptune High that she followed, the one in the hood, and one that the other men, through their thick Italian accents, had called Giacomo. The one she'd seen at school was named Armando, and the one in the hood was called Lorenzo. Veronica assumed they worked for the Italian mob or something.

Suddenly the big door swung open and Veronica looked up to see Armando with an evil amile adorning his face. She knew this was going to be worse than last time.

--

Tuesday, October 7th. 1:00 AM

Back in Neptune, Keith was wearing latex gloves and sorting through the contents of Veronica's purse. The bag had blood on it, so nobody had touched the contents of it, since the bag was classified as evidence.

Now, he was hoping that his daughter had left a clue or just something to help him.

So far, all he'd found was her cell phone, sunglasses, spare change, her wallet with driver's license and spare cash, some gums wrappers, some napkins, a pen, her digital camera, and a receipt for a shirt she bought at the mall.

He laid out all the individual items and felt like screaming. There was nothing useful there, just normal things a teenage girl would keep in her purse. He'd looked through her photos to see if she'd snapped a picture of the guy she'd followed, but no luck.

He let out a frustrated scream and banged his hand on the table. It landed on the napkins, and that's when Keith noticed something. One of the napkins had ink on it. In a splitsecond he flipped it over and stared at the numbers and letters written down on the napkin.

He choked out a smile. His daughter had inherited some of his investigative skills after all.

Not hesitating another second, he pulled up the police database on the computer and typed in the license plate number. He smiled in relief again when a name popped up on the system. The car was a black '65 Chevy Impala, registered to one Antionio Costa. An Italian man. Gotcha.

--

When Keith called and told her that Veronica had left a license plate number and that they had figured out the identity of the man, Lilly wanted to jump for joy. She was so glad that she had remembered what Veronica had said. Maybe she should start praying to God more often. She ran into Duncan's room, dancing happily.

"What, what is it?" Duncan asked, hoping they'd found Veronica. Logan, who was sitting in Duncan's room too, also perked up and voiced the question that Duncan had thought.

"Did they find her?" Lilly immediately stopped dancing.

"No, sadly. The did the next best thing. They found out who has her." Lilly smiled and the boys grinned. Granted, there was still an edge to their happiness because they hadn't found Veronica, only who had her. But it was a hell of a lot better than nothing.

--

Wednesday, October 15th

It was about 2 AM when the two men dressed in black pulled up on their motorcycles to the 24 hour convenience store. Taking their helmets off, they went inside the small, dingy, gas station . The first man immediately went to the back and grabbed two 40's out of the freezer and dragged the other man to the front to pay. The clerk, who looked incredibly bored and tired, monotonously asked for their ID's. The ID showed Frank Ramirez, aged 29. The clerk thought she recognized the photo, and looked up at the man who'd given her the ID.

The guy on the fliers. Armando something. That's where she'd seen him.

"It'll be 7.84," She said, trying to show no sign of nervousness or recognition. The man turned to the other man and said something in a language the clerk didn't understand, she assumed Italian. While they were both not looking, she pressed the silent alarm under the desk. Then, the man handed her 8 and she gave them their change, and they headed off, the sound of motorcycles roaring down the highway echoing in her ears as they drove away.

Police sirens broke the moment of silence after the roar of the motorcycles died.

--

Veronica sat in darkness, waiting for the men to come back. She didn't dare glance down at her body, because all she would see was the evidence of what they'd done to her. She could still feel his hands all over her, touching her. She had thrown up after Armando had left. There were new cuts and lacerations on her body, because she the man who she assumed was the leader of the group, Antonio, was fond of using his rather large belt on her back.

For the most part, she just took it. She refused to let them see her cry, and she tried to hold back her screams when they hurt her. They hurt her more if she fought back, and she was no match for two or three grown men. She had to think of a way to escape... but until then, she was on reconnaissance. She had to know exactly how these men worked, and then think of a way to outsmart them, and not run away out of sheer instinct.

And until the right moment came, she would sit in the shadows and reminisce over her life, which was the only thing that kept her from going insane.

--

Monday, October 20

It had been two weeks since Lilly's revelation, and each day that passed, all the people in Veronica's life grew more and more weary and depressed.

The car had followed every traffic law, and the cameras never caught it because of it. No fingerprints were found upon further investigation of Veronica's car, and they found the residence of Antonio Costa, only to discover a Hispanic family had moved in the week earlier, saying that Antonio, who they didn't know at the time, had sold them the house for a very cheap price.

According to border officials, the car hadn't passed through at any point within the last three weeks. Just in case, they gave them fliers of Antonio Costa and known cohorts. The FBI, who had been brought in after they discovered the identity of the man, sent out an email to all the stores in Southern California and sent a flier to all the gas stations in the area of Antonio Costa and the rest of the known Italian mob.

The FBI had been brought in, and so far every lead they'd gotten had led them to a dead end. A credit card hit up in San Diego, which turned out to be an ex-wife of Antonio's. A cell phone turned on in Arizona, which was found lying on a park bench with no fingerprints and no eyewitnesses to say that Antonio was there.

One agent who'd been put in charge of the case, Agent Saunders, was getting quite frustrated with this case. They'd been tracking the Italian gang for over four years, starting with a series of murders in Chicago of lesser employees that did something wrong. He didn't know why they'd resorted to kidnapping a teenage girl, and he found it even more suspicious that there was no ransom note or any sign that they wanted something in return for her.

He came to the conclusion that she had seen something she wasn't supposed to see or that they only thought she did.

Sighing, he ran his hands through his hair and willed the pieces and scraps of evidence in front of him to make sense.

There was the license plate number, the Kane girl's details of the man, and some tire tracks that didn't help them at all. This guy was seriously good at covering his tracks, and frankly it was pissing him off.

A police officer from the Balboa County Police Department, Zacks or Sacks or something, Saunders couldn't remember, came in waving a piece of paper.

"Sir, their's something I think you should see."

Agent Saunders leapt up from his seat and followed the officer to the front desk, where he had something on the computer pulled up.

"Sir, we got an email today from an officer in Calexico, a town in the county next to ours. He said they got a report at about 2 AM Sunday morning at a gas station convenience store that two of Costa's gang members, Armando Paradisi and Tullio De Luca, using fake ID's at the store to buy alcohol. The clerk recognized the men from the fliers we sent out to all the gas stations north of the border, and she pressed the silent alarm. They paid up front in cash, no credit cards unfortunately, and they were wearing motorcycle gloves so we don't have a print. She said that the men took off on two motorcycles, both completely black 'Matrix-looking'... she guessed an italian make. The police didn't arrive in time, but they got the tape of the encounter, and they're mailing it over here as soon as possible."

Agent Saunders read over the email from the officer and then all of a sudden turned on his heel and started shouting out orders to the lesser agents and officers milling about.

"Thank you, Zacks, really, this is great." The agent smiled, and the deputy frowned.

"Actually it's... Sacks," He said to a retreating back.

11:56 PM

Lilly, Logan, and Duncan were sitting on the rooftop of a small apartment building in Neptune. Three bottles of whiskey were sitting between them, on top of a blanket. The three teenagers lay there, watching the dark night sky and looking at the stars, hoping to find an answer in the infinite space. They knew they wouldn't find it, but they felt like they could see everything from on top of the building.

"I miss her." Lilly commented.

"You know we all do, Lilly." Duncan replied.

"Yeah, but I miss her." Lilly said, and this silenced the other two. She wasn't aware that she was crying until she felt something wet hit the corner of her mouth, and when she did she looked at the other two, who weren't really in any better shape.

"It's not supposed to be like this. She's out there somewhere, and she could be right under our noses, but we can't do a goddamned thing." Logan said after a while. Lilly lay back down.

"Anyone could have her right now, and no doubt they've hurt her in some way." Duncan said grimly, taking a long swig of a bottle. Silence settled over the group, and the only thing they heard was the beating of their hearts and the swishes of the liquid inside the bottles. After a long silence that seemed to suffocate the three of them with unvoiced regrets and sad memories, Lilly raised her bottle to the sky.

"Here's to you, Veronica Mars."

The boys didn't bother to question it, just raised their bottles to the sky, for reasons they couldn't really explain.

October 21, 2:00 AM

Agent Saunders was barking out orders to the rest of his team, he was in a rush to catch these bastards. The sheriff had been called in a little while ago and he was just as bad, if not worse, than Saunders, frantically moving about and doing as much as he could, and Saunders admired the guy for it.

The security tape showed that it was indeed Armando Paradisi and Tullio De Luca, and he had watched and rewatched it over again to see if he could find anything that might help the search.

He knew that they had to be somewhere near Calexico, so he'd sent out a team to the small town to ask around, see if anybody had seen the motorcycles pass through. After all, it had been around 2AM, it wasn't a normal occurence for two motorcycles to come roaring through at that time.

The tape showed that the men had left at around 2:24 AM, and if he was lucky a witness might be able to point which direction they went in. He was banking on it, considering that there wasn't much else he could hope for. They were certainly near Calexico and not south of the border, but that could put them even 40 miles out from the town, if they were just that eager to cover their tracks. They couldn't just barge in to every building within 40 miles and do a complete search.

He raked a hand through his hair and rubbed his bloodshot eyes. The Mars girl's case was keeping him up, and he'd only slept about an hour in the past two days. She needed to be found, and fast.

--

In the town of Calexico, a lesser agent from the FBI knocked on the door to one of the apartments in the dilapidated, old apartment building that was about 10 miles away from the gas station where Costa's men had been spotted. A middle-aged, tired looking, Hispanic woman answered, cradling a toddler on her arm.

"What is it?" She asked, rudely. But then again, he was knocking on the door at a very late hour, he couldn't expect much friendliness.

"I'm terribly sorry to disturb you, ma'am." A boy looking to be about seven or eight came and rested against the woman's legs. "But I was wondering if you'd seen or heard of two black, Italian motorcycles that passed through here at about 2 AM on Sunday night?" He asked cautiously. The woman began to shake her head no, but then the boy holding on to her leg spoke up.

"You mean the dark men who made loud noises and woke me up?"

--

Agent Saunders and Keith Mars were sitting in Keith's office, waiting for some news on Costa when Sacks came bursting through the door, waving a paper around.

"We got a witness that puts the motorcycles about 10 miles outside the gas station at around 2:32 AM Sunday night," he breathed out.

"Oh thank God," Keith said. Saunders gave a small smile.

"There's also another thing... the FBI was able to hack into one of the men's phones.. De Luca has his phone on right now, and we can track the signal."

Both men jumped in the air and ran out the door, but Keith stopped to hug Sacks as he left.

They were going to find his baby girl.

--

I know, I know, I'm mean. But hey! At least you know that the next chappy there gonna find Veronica! yay! and i promise that after that, there's gonna be some major LoVe. don't you worry, kids. :


	3. Stepping On Glass

Hey, pretties

Hey, pretties. sorry i'm so mean. Well here, this is the next chapter where they find Veronica! yaaaaay! i warn you, this chapter is a strong 'T'. not quite M. (but it may get that way in later chapters... wink wink nudge nudge) :

So here you go.

Chapter Three

-Stepping On Glass...-

October 21, 2:43 AM

Agent Saunders was on his laptop with Keith hovering over him, looking at the blown up map of Calexico. They waited for a tense moment before a tiny; blinking red light came on the screen. It was fading in and out, and it appeared to be moving. Several other agents gathered around the computer, waiting for a command from their leader. The computer worked quickly, and soon red lines were closing in on the little red light to pinpoint the exact location. Finally, there was a small ding that showed the computer did its job.

72 Olden Lane.

"Gotcha," Saunders whispered. Immediately, he called out the order to get the S.W.A.T. team trucks out and pack as many agents as possible. They were going to nab these guys.

Agents hustled and ran all over the place, scrambling to get to the waiting trucks. They put on the bulletproof armor and helmets, grabbing their weapons and getting into the trucks. Saunders trailed, opting to forgo the helmet and only putting on a bulletproof vest.

Wordlessly, he handed a vest and a helmet to Keith, who took it with a grateful nod. Saunders respected the man, and had no business keeping him from his daughter, protocol or not.

When everything was loaded and ready, they took off into the night, sirens blaring.

--

The three teenagers were still lying on top of the building. The bottles they'd each had were considerably less full now, and each one of them was feeling more than a little tipsy. They were just content with the silence, not really having anything else to say, and they were just getting used to it when a loud, blaring noise shook them out of it.

They all sat up abruptly, and Lilly crawled to the side to look over the edge of the building to look at what was causing the disturbance, and was joined by Logan and Duncan a second later.

They each saw four S.W.A.T. trucks. They all froze.

"You don't think..." Lilly started.

"No, not likely." Logan finished.

"But what if?..." Duncan asked.

The three of them looked at each other for a moment before practically flying down the stairwell and running in the direction of the sheriff's department.

--

3:24 AM

Keith sat in the back of the truck, clenching and unclenching his fists. He wanted to beat the men who'd stolen his daughter to a bloody pulp, or use some form of medieval torture on them, but he knew that any rash action could get him or someone else killed... or worse, Veronica.

"Keith, you know I can't let you go in there if you don't have a straight head," the agent commented softly. It was then that Keith noticed that he was grinding his teeth and the vein in his neck was popping out.

"You have to be prepared for the worst. We don't know if she's even alive, but if she is, then you need to stay calm... for your daughter," he continued. Keith stopped all his tiny twitches and relaxed, giving a slow nod. He needed to save Veronica.

The truck stopped about 100 yards outside the run-down decrepit-looking house. Silently, the agents came out from the trucks, and moved to make a full circle around the building.

--

Logan hung in the background as each of the Kanes argued with the deputy at the front desk of the Sheriff's office. Lilly had initially tried to flirt her way through it, but then tried the diversion tactics. Logan knew she'd be threatening bodily harm soon.

Duncan was yelling at the deputy, who looked a bit frightened, which would've been hilarious at any other time.

Right now he was just silently praying to God that she came out alright. He never prayed to God... he had never needed to. Now, though, he felt helpless, and it angered him. He felt like punching something, anything, because he couldn't do a thing to help her, and it was killing him. He missed her so goddamn much, and she was out there somewhere, out of reach.

Now that he had some hope, he wasn't sure he could ever recover if things ended... badly.

No, he couldn't think of that. That couldn't happen. His Veronica was strong; she could live through anything.

He just hated all this shit. He hated that he was useless, he hated that he didn't know anything, and it caused him physical pain to know that she was more than likely hurt.

--

Veronica could hear the muffled voices of Costa and Tullio from outside her cell, and it sounded like they were arguing. She inched closer to the door to make out what they were saying.

"How could you be so stupid? voi idiot ardente!" Costa yelled. She could hear the fear in Tullio's voice when he spoke, although she couldn't understand the words.

"non ho saputo che gli prenderebbero questo lontano." She could almost hear him cringing.

"They'll be looking for us, now! BASTARDO!" Costa yelled. Despite the sickening crack that she was sure was Tullio's arm and the accompanying shriek, Costa's words gave her some hope that they were looking for her.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! We used fake ID's and wore gloves too!"

"I don't give a dam, you heaping pile of shit!" Costa roared in his thick Italian accent.

"era difetto del Armando anche!" Tullio pleaded.

"And he'll get punished just like you! But first we have to leave," Costa said in a low voice. "Get the boys and load up the cars. I'll get the girl." Veronica's heart dropped. Nobody was going to be able to save her now. A very angry Costa entered the room, and Veronica whimpered in fear. Costa got down on his hands and knees, holding out a piece of rope.

"Alright, little girl, we're leaving. If you so much as THINK about running away, I'll leave you alone with Lorenzo and Giacomo for two hours, and then after that we'll have a little chat." Veronica tried to hold back the cry that threatened to escape her lips as he tied the rope tightly around her wrists.

"Comprende?" He asked gruffly. She shut her eyes and nodded quickly. He roughly pulled her up and led her through a series of corridors and hallways, heading towards the exit.

Suddenly, a small thud interrupted the silence. Then there was a bigger one. Costa pulled Veronica to a stop, obviously trying to figure out the source of the noise.

Another thud came, louder and closer. Costa's face morphed into a discontented snarl, and he dragged Veronica back through the maze of hallways to the back exit, where Armando and Giacomo were standing.

"che cosa sta accadendo?" Costa demanded, addressing Armando.

"I don't know." A louder thud reverberated through the house, and the three men started to panic.

"OPEN THE DOOR!!" Costa shouted, and Armando obliged. An enormous thud reverberated through the house, and it momentarily shook up the three men.

'It's now or never...' Veronica thought. Choosing that moment, she ran out the back door as fast as she could. She didn't stop running, not having a clue where she was going but her legs just kept on going. Anywhere was better than back there.

She could hear the loud and angry calls of Costa and his men, running after her like there was no tomorrow. She wasn't a match for Costa, and she knew it, but she had to try.

A few moments later he caught up to her, and grabbed her by the arm, forcing a shriek out of her, and he spun her around quickly. Thinking fast, she spat in his face. He let go of her, and she kept on running.

She wasn't sure how long they were chasing her, but it felt like hours. Finally, when it seemed like they were catching up to her, she rounded a corner of the house and was met face-to-face with at least 20 S.W.A.T. officers. She let out a choked sob of relief, but she didn't notice that Costa was right behind her. And when she did realize it, he knocked her on the head with the barrel of a gun before she could scream. The last thing she heard was her father calling her name.

Tuesday, October 31, 5:00 AM

Veronica woke up in an unfamiliar room. This wasn't her cell. She briefly forgot everything that had happened, but breathed a sigh of relief when she remembered that she had been rescued and that she was in a hospital room.

A doctor came in and interrupted her thoughts.

"Veronica, you're awake!" He said, giving a sad smile. "My name is Dr. Gravett, and I'm sure you have a lot of questions for me." Veronica nodded.

"Why do I feel like my head got trampled by a herd of elephants?" She asked, rubbing her head. The doctor laughed a little.

"You were knocked over the head with a gun, and it knocked you out for a couple of hours. The painkillers should set in shortly." Veronica nodded, then asked the question that she really wanted to know.

"So what's the damage?" The doctor visibly cringed.

"Veronica, I wanted to tell you about all your injuries before I told your families... I didn't want them to be shocked or panicked. Your injuries are definitely survivable, and will most likely heal over time." Dr. Gravett said, stalling.

"Doc, just get on with it." The doctor sighed.

"You had to get stitches on the gash on your head, which luckily wasn't infected. You had one infected cut on your left arm, but we already gave you some of the medicine to get rid of it. Your left wrist was completely broken, so we'll need to put it in a cast later on. You had about 29 scars on your back... they look to be from a belt." The doctor had paled when Veronica nodded. "We treated them as best we could, but a few might not be able to ever fully fade because they weren't treated properly." Dr. Gravett looked at Veronica to gauge her reaction, but she simply nodded, processing it all.

"There was one more thing... we found evidence of sexual abuse." Veronica stopped nodding and looked at the doctor.

"What kind of evidence?" She asked softly.

"Your hymen was completely torn, not to mention the numerous scars, and all the bruises." He sighed, and Veronica just stared.

"So you're saying you didn't tell my family?" She asked, and the doctor nodded.

"Please don't tell my father about the rapes. I'm not sure what he'll do with that information, but it can't be good." She looked up pleadingly at Dr. Gravett.

"Veronica, he needs to know. There are a few tests we need to run and he needs this information to charge the men responsible with it in court." The doctor frowned.

"Please? Just let me tell him on my terms? He'll find out later and before the trial I promise, but he doesn't need this on top of everything and I don't really want to deal with it now." She was practically begging him.

"There's really nothing I can do to stop you. It's the doctor-patient confidentiality agreement after all. As much as I hate it, I won't tell them, you have my word. But you need to promise me you'll let them know at some point." Veronica held up her pinky and linked it with the doctor's, who gave her a small smile.

"Now let me just go tell your family about the other injuries, and then we'll get you in that cast."

11:02 AM

As soon as the doctor said it was okay to have visitors, Veronica's parents rushed in the door and basically attacked her face with kisses.

"Don't you ever scare us like that, again, Veronica!" Her mom said. Her parents both hugged her and Veronica smiled. It was good to be home.

"You really don't know what I'd do if we hadn't found you," her father said with tears in his eyes. Veronica smiled and wiped them away.

"I'm here now." Keith smiled at her and hugged her fiercely.

--

Her father had explained what had happened when she was rescued, starting at the gas station security alert all the way to her being knocked unconscious in the S.W.A.T. truck and taken to Neptune Memorial.

Apparently the FBI had raided the mob's hideout, with Tullio, Lorenzo, and Alberto Santini all shooting at the agents, and were killed in the process. Armando, Giacomo, and Costa were apprehended chasing after Veronica, two other mob members were injured and at the hospital currently, and three others were unaccounted for.

He'd also told her that as soon as she was feeling better she'd unfortunately have to go talk to Agent Saunders about it and give her formal statement about her experience. Veronica was not looking forward to it. Her father was even less excited about it. His daughter just needed some time to herself and her family and friends. She didn't need to relive that just yet.

Veronica's mother had gone to get a coffee and Keith and Veronica were just talking when they heard a loud argument coming from the nurses' station outside the door. Veronica tuned in to what was going on.

"Look, lady, I just wanna see my friend. So the sooner you give me the room number the sooner you can go back to being completely rude and unhelpful to some other poor bastard!"

Veronica recognized that voice.

"Lilly?" She yelled. Lilly turned, and Veronica noticed that Duncan and Logan were right beside her. Lilly smiled a 1000-watt smile when she saw her friend, and the boys' faces were no different. The three of them came rushing into her room, collapsing onto her with hugs and smiles.

"I think I'll go find your mother, Veronica." Keith smiled and exited the room, shutting the door behind him.

"Veronica Mars, nothing can kill you, can it?" Lilly asked, exuding happiness.

"Just call me the unsinkable Molly Brown... oh wait, that's not my name." Veronica returned the smile and Lilly screamed and hugged her tightly.

"These last few weeks have been AWFUL. Never ever ever ever ever do that to me again!" Lilly said, tears filling her eyes. With a final hug, she settled down in the chair to let the boys have their turn.

Duncan grinned at her and Veronica just laughed. He hugged her lightly and stroked her cheek.

Finally Logan came up and Veronica was extremely surprised to see that he was crying too. He looked sad for a moment, before smiling and giving her a bear hug. He hugged her for a long time, crying onto her shoulder, before Duncan and Lilly sat up on the bed and hugged her too.

The four of them sat for a while like that, crying and smiling.

Finally, Lilly interrupted the silence.

"So Ronica, lemme tell you ALL about these last few weeks." Lilly scooted closer to her and Logan groaned. It wasn't as bad as he thought though, because pretty soon the four of them were talking and laughing, just reveling in the feeling that all was right again. And Veronica once more remembered why she loved these people.

"Veronica, what's it going to be like from now on?" Duncan asked. It was Veronica's turn to groan.

"I've been dreading that question," she gave a wistful sigh before continuing. "Look, I don't want you guys to treat me any different. It was a bad experience, and I know I've changed, but I won't give them the satisfaction of seeing me lose my life over this. I intend to keep living, and I'm not going to let this ruin my life. They can't win. So I want things to just flow naturally, to not be weird. I'm alive, and I intend on relishing in that every moment that I have a pulse." Veronica finished her speech and damn her, she was crying again. She looked up at the others to see them in similar conditions.

"Okay." Logan said.

"Yeah," Duncan agreed, nodding.

"Does this mean that you'll go on one of my 'adventures' with me now?" Lilly asked, breaking the solemn atmosphere. The girls giggled and the boys smiled.

"Alright kiddies, we are making a promise, right here right now," Lilly announced.

"Lilly, we are not doing anything that involves bodily harm or public nudity," Duncan said with a groan. Lilly scoffed at him.

"You three have to promise me that no matter what, through all the mistakes we make, we are still going to be friends till we die." Lilly finished her declaration and held out her pinky for the other three to pinky-swear with. Veronica took her pinky without hesitation, and Logan and Duncan soon followed.

After it was done, they all smiled. And before she could do anything, Logan, Lilly, and Duncan tackled Veronica in a group hug.

And that's how it was, and always would be. The Fabulous Four, inseparable til the end.

--

Reviews are extremely appreciated. Any constructive criticism is welcome, and also I'll gladly take any suggestions.

Much love, kiddies. :

Lilly


	4. Learning To Cope

Fourth chapter

Fourth chapter! yaaay!

And by the way, I had some questions as to if that last chapter was the end of the story. If you couldn't already tell from this chapter, it's NOT. It ain't over till I say it's over, goddammit! haha well on another note, updates might be getting even less frequent. I'm so so so sorry, but inspiration hasn't hit me yet, but when it does I'll probably end up writing the rest of the story! That's just how it is with me, so just hang tight, I promise it'll get an ending, preferably before the next century.

Chapter Four

-...But Learning to Cope-

Monday, November 3

It was 9 days before Veronica was let out of the hospital, the doctors insisting on conducting various tests and making sure she was alright before releasing her. They made her visit the therapist, but it didn't help much considering Veronica wasn't telling her anything about the kidnapping. In fact, Veronica refused to speak a word about it, and automatically changed the subject whenever it was brought up.

Lilly, Logan, and Duncan were with her all the time. The first night, they wanted to stay in the room, but the nurses said that they weren't allowed to, that only family was allowed. They had all protested this of course, with Duncan trying to reason his way out of it, and Logan threatening to punch everyone. Lilly said she needed to run an errand and came back with a tent 20 minutes later that she put in front of Veronica's door. Logan, Duncan, and Veronica laughed their asses off as the nurses looked on in anger and awe as Lilly crawled into the tent, refusing to move until they said it was okay.

The nurses, of course, called security, who forcibly dragged Lilly out of the tent and took it away. Lilly pouted the entire time after that, while her friends just giggled. Then, Lilly's face lit up and she ran out the front door, leaving a very confused Veronica, Logan, and Duncan in her wake. 10 minutes later she came back in to the ER on a gurney while doctors pushed her. As soon as the teenagers realized that Lilly was laughing, Veronica and Logan realized what Lilly's intent was. Duncan freaked out, panicking as to why Lilly would do something to hurt herself.

A while later, Lilly was wheeled into the room and put on the bed next to Veronica, sporting a neon pink cast on her left arm to match Veronica's. Duncan rushed over to the still laughing Lilly, frantically checking her over.

"Lilly, why would you do that!" Duncan shrieked. Logan laughed harder.

"They wouldn't let me stay here overnight to visit Ronica, so I figured I'd become a patient!" Lilly explained triumphantly. Veronica and Logan laughed even harder. Duncan soon smiled, realizing just how much his sister loved Veronica.

"How did you break your arm, Lil?" Veronica asked.

"I tried climbing up one of those streetlights thingys, and I 'unfortunately' fell off, breaking my left arm." Lilly grinned and the three other people in the room laughed.

"You know, Donut, you're MY family, so I guess that means you can stay overnight too." Lilly concluded. Logan scowled.

"What about me?"

"Chill, Echolls, you can be my distant cousin that's visiting us or something." Lilly said, rolling her eyes. They told that story to the nurse a while later, who looked incredulous but didn't want to see what else the three teens had in store. They were going to stay tonight whether she liked it or not.

Veronica thought about the memory and smiled, she was really lucky to have friends like Logan and the Kanes.

It had taken her dad a lot of convincing to let her go back to school, but he knew he had to let her go at some point. He did insist, however, that she carry her cell phone with tracking device, pepper spray, and taser on her at all times, and that she always had to take a friend with her when she went anywhere at night.

So Veronica was sitting on her front porch, waiting for Lilly and Duncan to come pick her up for her first day back. Soon she heard the honk of Lilly's horn and grabbed her bag, running out to the car and jumping in.

"Hey Lil."

"Morning. Ronica, you got your hair cut!" Lilly exclaimed when she saw her hair. Veronica's hair was indeed considerably shorter, barely touching her shoulder with bangs falling in her eyes.

"You look fabulous darling." Lilly said, and Veronica smiled.

"So where's Duncan?" She asked.

"I don't know, he went with Logan early this morning. They said they were gonna beat up some freshmen or something else equally as testosterone-filled," Lilly replied, cranking up the radio.

The girls pulled in to the Neptune High parking lot and Lilly looked over at Veronica before getting out.

"You ready?" She asked warily. Veronica smirked, a glint in her eye.

"As ready as I'll ever be." And without any more hesitation, the girls hopped out of the car and started walking together towards the school.

Murmurs and gasps filled the hallway as Veronica passed through. She could tell that people were looking at her bruise and stitches, because as hard as she tried, it was still really diffucult to cover them up.

She was seriously about to punch someone when Logan and Duncan came up, Logan putting his arms around Lilly and Veronica, and Duncan putting his arm around Veronica. The four smiled at each other and people got out of their way. The murmurs and gasps turned into heated whispers, but the four didn't really care.

They approached their lockers, Veronica and Lilly's being right next to each other, with Logan's and Duncan's a few feet away.

"So, Mars, are you ready for a day of funfunfun?" Logan asked, coming up behind her and tickling her sides. Veronica shrieked and wriggled out of his grasp.

"You mean a day where I'm going to get bombarded with questions that I really don't feel like answering? I suppose. But don't blame me if people start getting hurt. It's their own fault." She huffed. Logan smirked.

"You're cute when you're angry." Veronica scoffed and Lilly laughed.

"Oh, and by the way, the hair is extremely hot." Logan said as he and Duncan headed off for their first class, and as if on cue, the bell rang. Veronica glanced at Lilly, who winked and ran off to her first class. Veronica sighed. This was going to be a long day.

--

Lunch came excrucitatingly slow for Veronica, and she was sure she was going to kill someone. Shelley Pomeroy would not stop asking Veronica every single question that popped into her head, and unfortunately Veronica had math and english with her. In addition to that, everyone in the school was abuzz with whispers of how much she'd changed and why. It was getting to the point where she couldn't walk two feet without someone immediately stopped talking and stared at her.

She stomped out to the quad after having a run-in with Madison, who insisted on telling her how horrible it was without her, and that she had missed her soooo much. Veronica hated Madison, she always had. She was a fake, shallow, and slutty bitch, and she really felt like telling her at that moment.

She sat down at the usual table where she and her friends sat at, and Dick was already there.

"So, Ronnie," Dick said, putting emphasis on her name. "You're lookin' pretty excellent today. What are the odds of you and me going for it?" Veronica pretended to humor him.

"I happen to have them right here... and they are, a googleplex to one." She wanted to burst out laughing when she saw him smirk.

"Right on!" He high-fived John Enbom as he passed by. It was then that Duncan and Lilly sat down at the table, arguing over something. Lilly abandoned the arguement when she saw Dick hitting on Veronica, and plopped down next to her best friend.

"Dick, please control your sexual urges around Ronica. She and I will never fuck you," Lilly stated. Dick frowned.

"Man, why not?" He pouted, and Duncan laughed.

"Dick, we would have sex with each other over you," Veronica said, knowing the exact reactions she'd get and smirking because of it. Lilly fell over laughing and Duncan spit out his water. Dick looked incredibly hopeful.

"Oh pleasepleaseplease say you'll do it!" Dick asked, clasping his hands together and pouting. Veronica and Lilly laughed, and Duncan tried to recover from his choking fit.

It was that moment that Logan walked over and eyed the empty spaces on the benches before opting to sit on Duncan.

"Do what and am I invited?" Logan asked, resting his elbow on the table while Duncan struggled to get Logan off of him.

"Dick's just thinking south of the border again," Lilly said. Dick looked proud and adjusted his belt buckle.

"Ah. Well he does have a namesake to live up to."

"Logan, you do realize that there are empty seats." Duncan choked out.

"Yes, but where's the fun in that, Duncy-wunky-kins," replied nonchalantly, pinching Duncan's cheeks.

"So Ronica, how're you holding up, do you want to kill anyone yet?" Lilly asked.

"Shelley and Madison. They've been pestering me all morning. I swear, if I have to put up with them for another minute, I'm gonna bust a cap up their asses."

"To be fair, when do we not want to kill them," Logan said. Dick shot him a glare.

"Dude, that's my girlfriend."

"She's not so much your girlfriend as she is your sex toy, Dickie." Logan reasoned. Dick shrugged and nodded.

"A little to the left," Logan said to Duncan as he banged his fists on Logan's back.

--

Monday, December 1

The weeks passed by and everything was seemingly back to normal, except for Veronica. She was almost brand new. When she'd said in the hospital that she was going to live her life like she was going to die tomorrow, her friends hadn't really known what she'd meant. But now they knew.

She'd cut her hair and it was like the old Veronica was completely gone. She wasn't naive anymore, she was downright cynical. She had a sharp tongue that got her in a lot of trouble. Gone were the pink pastels and yellow cotton dresses, and in came the black tank tops and combat boots. She broke the rules a lot, and what some people might have seen as a downward spiral, her friends saw it as Veronica finally free to enjoy being young.

Lilly was overjoyed at the change in her best friend. In the past month, they'd skipped school in favor of hanging out at the beach, skinny-dipped in the ocean numerous times, climbed over the gates at Logan's house and snuck into his bedroom and woke him up at 5:00 in the morning, and trespassed on an 09ers house by climbing the drainpipe and screaming out obscenities on the roof. The girls loved every second of it.

Duncan wasn't as happy with the change. He missed his sweet, kind, loving, girlfriend. He knew that she wasn't going to come back, and figured he should start moving on.

Logan was more than overjoyed. Before, he and Veronica had been friends, but never really incredibly close. Now, they hung out without either of the Kanes to buffer them, and were nearly inseperable. Lilly was convinced that Logan liked her, but they both denied the claims. He and Veronica were more than friends, but they didn't like each other. Logan was ecstatic at how well he got along with this new Veronica, and they had lots of fun together. They planned pranks on other students and teachers at school, going so far one time as to switch the tapes of Angie Dahl's powerpoint with a porn movie and almost ruining her Ivy League dreams.

Together, Veronica, Lilly, Logan, and Duncan were invincible. They were fiercely protective of one another, and they almost never fought. There weren't a lot of secrets between them, and though the other students didn't understand how four people so different could be that close, the four of them didn't really care. It was the kind of friendship that one could only hope for.

Today, Veronica had woken up in a good mood. Mainly because she and Logan had planned out a prank against Madison that people were going to be talking about for weeks, but also because she'd managed to piss off her therapist the night before.

She sat there in History, smiling to herself. It was then that Logan appeared in the seat beside her.

"What's got you all smiley?" He asked. She looked over at him and grinned more.

"Just thinking about what's going to happen today."

"Ah. That. Do you have the keys?" Veronica reached into her pocket and jingled a pair of keys in his face.

"So did you do the other thing?" She asked, raising her eyebrows. Logan only smirked in reply.

"Darling, do I detect a hint of doubt in your voice?" Logan asked, quirking an eyebrow and speaking in his jackass voice, as Veronica called it.

"Sweetheart, it's not doubt, only a slightly misguided lack of faith," She replied back with a smile and a tilt of her head.

"You dress up the words, but the sentiment, it remains," Logan declared, getting up close to her face. Veronica smirked and Logan stared. Dick chose that moment to pull his desk in between theirs and get up close to both of their faces, looking back in between the other and breaking the silence.

"Hey guys... whatcha doin? 'Bout to make out?" Dick whispered. Logan and Veronica both turned around to stare at him, and Dick smirked. Veronica flipped him off, wiping the smug smile off his face. Logan laughed. Dick frowned.

--

When lunchtime came, Logan and Veronica bolted out of their seats. They whispered the final steps of their plan to each other in the hallway before running off in different directions.

Logan slowed down as he headed out to the quad. He tried to look inconspicuous as he headed out to the parking lot to set up Phase 2. He had already made the arrangements for Phase 1, and he was leaving the rest up to Veronica. He had no doubt that the little blonde could pull off. She was sneaky, conniving, and vindictive, and Logan loved it.

Veronica headed off in the direction of the office, hiding under the front desk as she saw Mr. Clemmons exit his office, locking the door as he went out. Veronica crawled out from under the desk, knowing she was the only one in the room. She'd made a call to the secretary earlier pretending to be her downstairs neighbor complaining that her apartment had a leak, and that she needed to go fix it right away.

Quickly, she ran over to Clemmons' door and took out a bobby pin from her hair, jamming it into the lock and getting it open in a matter of seconds. It really paid off to have a cop as a father. She entered and locked the door behind her, and decided to rifle through the permanent files until she got the call from Logan.

Logan, meanwhile, had just finished up Phase 2 and was now watching as the car arrived for Phase 1. Three cops got out and walked over to Logan, who handed them each 75 and pointed out where Madison was sitting in the quad. He took out his phone and pressed speeddial, and automatically Veronica picked up.

"It's a go, you ready?" He asked.

"I was born ready!" She replied,and hung up.

The student body watched as three cops walked over to the 09er table, and everyone wondered who was getting arrested this time. To the table's surprise, they stopped at Madison Sinclair.

"Madison Sinclair?" One asked, taking out a notepad and pen.

"What... what seems to be the problem, officers?" She asked, genuinely shocked.

"We've got a warrant for your immediate frisking on grounds of suspicion of illegal hotness." Another said. Dick started laughing and the three cops looked serious. The students' jaws had all dropped.

Suddenly, loud, techno music came on over the loudspeakers, and the three 'cops' jumped into action. Simaltaneously, they all started to slowly take off their shirts, doing the buttons one at a time. The students started cheering and laughing their asses off, while Madison looked on in horror.

The strippers tore away their pants and ripped off their shirts, revealing tight speedo-like underpants with american flags on them, and proceeded to crowd around Madison and dance around her, doing various lewd gestures while the students whooped and made catcalls. Madison was shocked and mortified, and her face had drained of all color.

The strippers went on for another couple of minutes, before one handcuffed Madison to him and proceeded to give her a lap dance. Madison screamed loudly and jerked away, stomping to the parking lot as the strippers and the rest of the student body followed.

Madison shrieked when she saw her car.

Her convertible had been painted neon pink, with the techno song blaring from the speakers. Her leather seats had been coated in KY jelly, and the windshield of her car read, "SEX SLAVE."

The students laughed even harder as Madison stood there, paralyzed. Logan and Veronica stood at the front of the crowd, rolling on the ground with laughter. Madison spun around, her face turning red.

"Maddy you're lookin at little red in the face!" Logan said, trying to contain his laughter. Madison turned to Veronica and spat at her.

"I know it was you, you little bitch!" She screeched. Logan's laughter subsided and he stepped in front of Veronica. "I'm going to make you pay, you freaking slut!"

"Say one more word to her, and I swear to God that I will make you regret the day that you ever set foot in this town. Got it?" Logan asked. Madison looked scared for a second before reluctantly nodding, and huffing off to her car. She jerked the door open and sat uncomfortably on the seat, driving off as the students looked on, still laughing.

Logan smirked as she drove off, then turned around to enjoy the rest of his Madison-free day. He was face-to-face with One Angry Veronica.

"You know I could've handled it myself," she said, crossing her arms.

"Ah, Sugarpuss, I was just having my fun," he smiled down at her. She didn't move.

"I don't need you to protect me." Logan sighed.

"C'mon, Mars, let's just bask in the glory of our now legendary prank." Logan put his arm around her shoulders and gave a lazy smile. Veronica smiled in return and grabbed his hand, and together the two walked through the crowd receiving whistles and applause.

Lilly came barelling into the pair with Duncan and Dick close behind.

"Guys that was amazing! I wish you'd let me in on it though..." Lilly pouted and did her best puppy-dog eyes. Veronica rolled her eyes.

"I promise you can be a part of the next prank, Lil." Logan said, and Lilly brightened, seemingly satisfied.

"So who was the brains behind that operation?" Duncan asked.

"That honor would go to Miss Machiavelli here," Logan said, bowing and motioning his arms as if to present Veronica. She smiled and playfully punched his arm.

"Ronnie, that was excellent. You're like, an evil mastermind." Dick said. "So anyways, you guys are aware of the super-mega-awesome-blowout at Shelley's this friday, right?" He continued.

"But of course. You think we'd miss out on some drunken slurs and ass-grabbing?" Veronica said sarcastically.

"Sugarpuss, you don't need to get me drunk to grab your ass," Logan said, smirking down at the tiny blonde, who scoffed.

"Veronica we must go shopping friday afternoon. We'll make ourselves primped and pretty and everything, and maybe we'll even invite some of those sexy Pan High guys..." Lilly trailed off and the three guys all groaned.

"Lilly, come on, they're our rivals. If you're bored with the guys here then can't we just fly you to Italy and let you go or something?" Duncan asked. Lilly looked thoughtful.

"Do you think I could do that?" She said, and Veronica laughed.

"If you do then I'm coming with you." She said, and Lilly agreed.

"So anyways, this party is going to be bangin'. I've already got a fine-lookin freshmen lined up for the Dickster." Dick said with a cocky smirk.

"Dick, finding a girl that can't stand on her own who forgot who you are and having drunken sex with her does not count." Logan said, and everyone laughed while Dick pouted.

"Man, I bet you 50 that I can get a sober chick to sleep with me."

"Okay, dude, whatever helps you sleep at night."

"But anyways, Duncan, Logan, do you have conquests lined up for the night's festivities?" Dick asked. Logan grinned.

"Well I know DK's got his eye on a certain girl..." Lilly whistled and Duncan blushed.

"Yeah? Well who do you have?" Duncan asked. Logan only smiled.

"Only time will tell, Duncan my dear." Logan said. "So Lilly, Shortstuff, who do you have in line for some alcohol-induced groping in the guest room?"

"WELL, since you won't let me invite the Pan High guys, I guess I'll have to go with a certain senior that is looking pretty damn amazing."

"Oooh do share more," Logan asked in a girlie voice.

"Adrian Kelly." She smiled.

"Damn. So jealous. That guy is seriously gorgeous, Lil," Veronica said.

"Seriously! So what about you, Veronica Mars?" Lilly asked, flipping her hair. Veronica shrugged.

"I'm thinking about flying solo for now... but I'll be waiting by the phone for that special boy to call!" She said with fake enthusiasm. The boys chuckled.

"Just you wait, Veronica Mars. I'll find that special boy for you if it's the last thing I do!" Lilly said it such determination that Veronica was forced to laugh. The bell rang right after and together, the five friends walked into the school, wondering what would happen at the party.


	5. A House Is Not A Motel

I AM SO FLIPPIN SORRY FOR THE INFREQUENT UPDATES. Inspiration didn't really hit me until lately, and I'm trying to stay several chapters ahead in posting for this story. I have a basic outline, it just needs to be written out. Reviews DO help though, and I appreciate them all. Thank you so much for sticking with me through my crap, I know I hate it when stories don't get updated like they should. I'm definitely going to be trying harder from now on.

Anyways, this is the fifth installment. WOO! I hope you like it, and if you don't, then please pretend, otherwise you'll hurt my poor little feelings.

Chapter Five

-A House Is Not A Motel-

Thursday, December 4th

Veronica sat alone in the car as she watched her dad drag her drunk mother out of the dirty, grimy bar. It was the third time this week they'd had to do this, and Veronica was thinking that it was becoming just another part of her schedule.

She knew that her mother had had drinking problems before the kidnap. She didn't know why. She had a great husband, lots of friends, and a straight A, pretty daughter. All she knew was that her mom would mumble things in her drunken stupor, something about wanting to keep Veronica safe. She chalked it up to bad dreams of her kidnapping, but she wasn't so sure. She sounded almost... guilty.

She knew her mother would never do anything to hurt her, she just didn't understand why she sounded guilty. Maybe she thought she couldn't protect her, that she was supposed to be there for her or something.

Either way, it was eating away at her mother, and she wanted it to stop.

Her dad pushed her mother into the backseat, and without a word, got into the front seat and started driving towards the house.

"It's getting worse," Veronica said flatly, staring at the window. He glanced over at her for a second, then turned his eyes back to the road.

"I know," he replied. The rest of the drive was silent except for the small snores of her mother in the backseat.

-----------------

Friday, December 5th

Veronica awoke the next morning to a light tinkling noise. She lay in bed for a minute before recognising it as a music-box version of "All You Need Is Love."

She sat up in bed and was about to shout at her mother at how she hated that song when she noticed the music box with a small peice of paper sitting beside it. Veronica bolted out of bed and grabbed the note.

Veronica-

I can't be here anymore. It's for the best. I'll come back for you someday. I love you so much. Love, Mom.

Veronica held back the tears that threatened to escape and threw the note and the music box in the trash, heading out to breakfast and pretending like it was a normal day.

---------------

Logan pulled up outside the Mars residence and honked the horn. Veronica walked slowly out of the house, shuffling her feet. She got in the car and Logan immediately noticed that her eyes were red and puffy.

"Veronica, what's wrong?" He asked, concern lacing his voice. She didn't even look up.

"Oh you know, the usual. Girl has Mom. Girl gets kidnapped. Mom goes nuts. Girl comes back. Mom gets into bad drinking habits and leaves in the middle of the night without saying goodbye." Veronica held back another wave of tears. She wasn't going to cry anymore.

"C'mere," Logan said simply. He leaned toward her and she all but leapt into his arms. He rocked her gently while she let loose the tears she said she wouldn't shed.

"What kind of a mother does this to their kid? I got kidnapped for God's sake and she isn't there to help me, she just leaves me to fend for myself! She doesn't even love me!" Veronica sobbed out. Logan made calming noises and stroked her hair, and in that moment, he decided he hated Lianne Mars.

After her breakdown in the car, Logan had told her that there was no way in hell that they were going to school, so they just kind of drove around for a while before Logan took her to a special part of the beach.

"I found this a couple years ago when I got wiped out by a wave while surfing. I ended up here. Nobody ever comes here, and it's really beautiful. I'm not gonna go all inspirational cliche and say it's my sanctuary or something, but I like it here." He said, sitting down in the sand. Veronica looked around. It really was beautiful.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, just listening to the waves hit the shore.

"Life sucks," Logan said. Veronica smiled ironically.

"Amen," she agreed.

"I assume you don't still want to go to Shelley's tonight?" He asked, turning to face her.

"Actually, it might be a good way to get my mind off of everything. I just want to have some fun, you know?" She said, and Logan nodded.

"Just stay away from Madison, she's probably planning your downfall right now." They laughed, but Logan couldn't help but think there was some truth to his words.

---------

"Veronica Mars, where have you been???" Lilly asked, running up to her friend in the parking lot of the school.

"Didn't feel like going to school today." She shrugged. Lilly noticed that she was standin beside Logan's car, and he wasn't there that day.... she put two and two together.

"So uh... you and Logey just decided to split in favor of more pleasurable activities?" Lilly raised her eyebrows suggestively and Veronica scoffed.

"Lilly you know we're just friends!" Lilly sighed.

"Ugh, fine. But you two would have adorable babies." Veronica laughed.

"Good to know."

"So are you ready to go shopping for the perfect outfit?" Lilly said, flipping her hair.

"Oh you know it. Now come on. We need to have time to make ourselves presentable, don't we?" Lilly laughed and the two girls got in Lilly's car and drove to the mall.

-----------

Four hours later, Duncan and Logan were waiting rather impatiently in Veronica's room. The girls had gone into the bathroom a half hour ago and hadn't come out since.

Duncan was banging his head against the door of the bathroom, while Logan was flopped down on Veronica's bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"Guys, how long could it possibly take you to get ready?" Duncan asked through the door.

"Gosh, Donut, we haven't even been in here that long, stop being such a girl!" Lilly's voice drifted through the room. Duncan scoffed, but didn't say anything further.

"You do realize that if we're late, we're going to miss getting incriminating photos of Dick in the process of getting drunk," Logan said dryly.

"Seriously, guys, we're gonna be late." Duncan added.

The door suddenly opened, knocking Duncan back on the floor.

"Relax, you pussies, we're ready to go now," Lilly said. The girls stepped out to the middle of the room and Logan and Duncan couldn't form coherent sentences.

Lilly was wearing a vintage-looking red halter that dipped low with a pair of light blue hip-hugging jeans and red sandals.

Veronica was wearing a navy blue tank top that said 'ARMY' on it with a pair of jeans and brown flip flops. Lilly had made sure that Veronica had worn a push-up bra, stating that it would enhance her not-there cleavage. Veronica had grumbled, but agreed, and by the looks on the boys faces, she thought it was worth it.

"So how do we look?" Veronica asked with a smirk. The boys just kind of gaped for a while, and Lilly couldn't contain her laugh.

"Oh I know, little Ronica's lookin very hot, isn't she?" Lilly asked.

"Veronica you look.... nice." Duncan said finally. This shook Logan out of his stupor.

"DK, what are you talking about? Nice?" Logan turned to Veronica. "Might I say that your rack looks fantastic!"

It was such a typical Logan thing to say that Veronica joined Lilly in her laughter.

"Alright, alright, so are we ready to blow this joint?" Logan asked after Veronica and Lilly recovered. The girls nodded the affirmative and the four quickly ran out of the house and out to the car with a shouted goodbye to Mr. Mars.

"Are you guys ready to party down?" Lilly asked when they got in the car.

"Oh I'm always ready," said Veronica.

"DK, are you going to actually have fun or are you just going to mope about your nonexistent girlfriend?" Logan asked his friend. Duncan frowned.

"Actually I was going to ask her out tonight." Lilly and Veronica squealed from the backseat.

"Who is it?" Lilly asked excitedly. Duncan stayed quiet, so Logan revealed it for him.

"Our little Duncy-Wuncykins is going after Saint Meg." Lilly and Veronica smiled.

"That's cute, Duncan," Veronica said, and Duncan smiled.

"CUTE? Nuh-uh. They are the kind of couple that are going to act like they've been married their entire lives, and the most they'll do in public is hold hands. Hell, that's the only thing they'll do in private too." Lilly finished her rant and Duncan was frowning at her. Logan and Veronica couldn't contain their laughter, and Lilly just looked back at Duncan with a huge smile on her face.

They pulled up to Shelley's house a minute later, and the foursome tumbled out of the car. They walked up the steps to the house and before they opened the door, it was opened for them by a seemingly already drunk Dick.

"My frans!! What's crack-a-lacckiiiin?" Dick attempted to envelop them all in a group hug, but they quickly pushed past him.

The party was in full swing when they got inside. The bar was up and running with John Enbom shouting something about a drinking game, and there was a heated pool and a hot tub out back that many people were crowded around in. There was also loud music blaring from speakers across the house, and many drunk 09ers were rubbing up against each other on the dance floor.

"Well my comrades, the time has come again for us to separate. Parting is such sweet sorrow... alas, the bar is calling," Logan said with a smirk and a faux-salute to us while stalking off towards the bar.

"Hey lover boy, there's Meggiepoo!" Lilly shouted over the noise, pushing Duncan in the direction of Meg. Duncan put on a sheepish grin and went over to talk to her, and soon they were engrossed in a deep conversation. Lilly then walked back over to Veronica.

"Alright, Veronica Mars, now that we've got our little boys all grown up and talking to girls and drinking and shit, lets go get some liquid lovin'." Lilly exclaimed, and Veronica laughed. Together, the girls walked over to the bar where Logan had somehow ended up being the bartender, and was currently shouting over some drink he'd created.

"Ah, ladies, so good to see you again this soon. Either of you care to try a little something I like to call, 'The Mad Grizzly?'" Logan asked as they approached the bar.

"Where the hell did you get that name?" Veronica asked. Logan smirked.

"A bartender never reveals his secrets. Although I'll give you a hint, it might have had something to do with one of Dick's drunken escapades last year..." Logan trailed off.

"Save it. I really don't want to know," Veronica laughed. Lilly eyed the drink in Logan's hand before grabbing it and downing it in a matter of seconds.

"Ooh, Lilly, someone likes her alcohol a little too much, you bad girl!" Logan beamed with glee and quickly poured a drink for Veronica.

"Oh what the hell?" Veronica said nonchalantly, taking her drink and downing it too. Logan whooped in appreciation and Lilly broke into an evil grin.

Veronica just kept the drinks coming.

-----------

About an hour and five drinks later, Lilly and Veronica were having the time of their lives. They were in a pleasant drunken haze, and Logan just kept giving them more alcohol. They couldn't stop giggling and making fun of people, and Logan was enjoying it thoroughly.

The girls had made the rounds several times, and burst out laughing when they saw Madison Sinclair. They fell on the ground laughing, and they couldn't stop. Madison scowled muttered something under her breath. The girls got up after a while and stumbled to the bathroom, laughing the entire way.

"Wow I don't even know why we were laughing at her!" Lilly choked out when they got in the bathroom. Veronica checked her hair while still giggling.

"I don't know," she hiccupped. "Cause she's UGLAY?" This sent the girls into another fit of giggles until they decided it was time to go back out.

"Shit! I forgot my drink at that table!" Veronica said, and ran off to go get it. She picked up her cup and then ran back to Lilly, who was waiting paitiently back at the bar.

After the girls had both finished their fifth 'Mad Grizzly' Lilly got an evil glint in her eye, which Veronica and Logan both recognized. Veronica grinned and Logan knew this was going to end badly. Lilly and Veronica plus an idea went together like a fat kid and spandex.

Grinning evilly, Lilly and Veronica hoisted themselves up on the bar. Lilly shouted at Casey to turn the music up louder, which he did obligingly. The girls had attracted a crowd now, who were all wondering what was going to happen next.

"Gant, turn it on the next song!" Veronica yelled out. Casey smiled and did so.

Logan was horrified at the song choice, and what Lilly and Veronica did next.

Lilly started grinding and shaking her ass on the table, hanging onto a metal rod in the ceiling as she did it. Logan thought she resembled a pole dancer. Veronica was even worse. She was going crazy with the dance moves. She was shaking her hair and spinning around, grinding and running her hands along her body and through her hair all the while.

Everyone in the crowd was cheering them on, especially the guys.

"I don't want, anybody else,

when I think about you I touch myself!"

Lilly and Veronica sang along to the words, going towards each other all the while. Logan heard Enbom, Dick, Casey, and Sean yelling and whistling.

Veronica and Lilly got closer and closer, dancing seductively all the while. Logan wanted to crawl into a pit and die.

'Wait... what?' Logan thought. 'There are too unbelieveably hot girls dancing on the bar, why am I sad?'

"I love myself,

I want you to love me

when I'm feelin' down,

I want you above me"

Lilly and Veronica sang the words to each other, and soon they were grinding up against each other, which illicted many loud and positive responses from the crowd. Logan wore a pained expression on his face... he was staring up at Veronica.

"I search myself,

I want you to find me

I forget myself,

I want you to remind me"

Lilly was enthusiastic in her singing, and she was getting really into it. Veronica looked a bit woozy, but she was smiling and giggling and dancing so nobody but Logan really noticed.

The girls separated and the boys in the crowd booed, but together they looked at each other and launched into the chorus.

"I don't want anybody else!"

Logan noticed Veronica blank out for a moment, but then she tried to cover it up.

"When I think about you

I touch myself!"

Lilly continued on singing, but Veronica stopped and stumbled for a minute, taking an involuntary step backwards. She tried to continue dancing though.

"I don't want anybody else,

Oh no, oh no, oh no!"

Suddenly, Veronica's eyes fluttered shut. Logan panicked for a second before running to her side in a splitsecond. She lost her footing on the bar, and fell backwards. Luckily, Logan was already behind her and he caught her without any difficulty.

Lilly jerked her head around and their were audible moans and groans at the loss of the two dancers from the crowd. Lilly hopped off the bar to stand next to them.

Logan was looking down at the tiny girl in his arms with what Lilly could only describe as a loving look, and even in her drunken haze her heart went out to him.

"What happened?" Lilly asked softly.

"I don't know... she needs rest. I'm gonna take her to the guest bedroom," Logan whispered, not looking up from Veronica's face. Lilly only nodded, and Logan carried her off to the guest room.

They passed several curious onlookers, but Logan didn't pay attention to them. He shoved his way through the partygoers and quietly opened the door to the bedroom. He saw a couple making out on the bed, they looked to be freshmen, and they quickly jumped apart when he came in.

"Get out." He said evenly, and the poor kids scrambled out of the room as fast as they could. He may have been only a year older, but Logan Echolls had a reputation, and he wasn't someone to mess with.

He walked over to the bed and gently set Veronica down on it, pushing the hair out of her face. She looked like she was sleeping now, and Logan thought she'd never looked more beautiful. Her absentmindedly stroked her cheek, while staring off into space and thinking about what had happened to her.

Suddenly, he realized something. She hadn't been drunk enough to pass out like that, she'd only had five of the drinks he'd made, and he made sure not to put too much alcohol in hers because he knew she didn't like it. So what did that mean?

Drugs. He knew there was some GHB being passed around there, but he didn't know why anyone would give any to Veronica, much less how it got in her drink.

What confused him was why she'd passed out from it. GHB was supposed to make you feel relaxed, and you wouldn't pass out unless you took too much...

Logan instantly paled. Someone at the party had intentionally given her a large amount, knowing that her small body couldn't handle it. He tried not to think about what their intentions were, and he made a run for the bathroom.

He rinsed his mouth after he was done, but he was still horrified at the thought of someone hurting Veronica, and he tried to push it to the back of his minde. He had gotten her, and now she was safe.

He reentered the room and sat down on the edge of the bed, looking at Veronica while she slept. She looked so peaceful, like nothing bad had ever happened to her. Logan crawled up the bed and plopped down beside her, leaning over her just to watch her face.

She didn't deserve any of it. She didn't deserve to be kidnapped and abused by those awful men, and Logan felt a violent wave of anger come over him at the memory of when they'd discovered when she was taken, and learning how she'd been tortured by them when she got back.

He smiled a sad smile as she mumbled in her sleep, turning over so she was curled into his chest.

In that moment, Logan realized he loved this girl. He truly loved her, maybe more than he'd loved Lilly. He liked the new Veronica, he just hated the circumstances that made it happen. He had a feeling this was always her though. Either way, he simply loved her.

Her smile, her laugh, how rare they really were. Every time she did either his heart nearly leapt out of his chest. He hated it when other guys looked at her, and he absolutely loathed it when she was sad. When she cried, it felt like the world was crying with her. He liked going to school just to be around her, and it made him anxious to be away from her.

It scared him shitless. He was falling in love, and he was falling quickly. He was afraid of the consequences of it, and he was afraid he would hurt her, that he could somehow hurt this angel. He didn't know what to do, and he panicked for a minute.

Then she said his name.

"Logan..." she said softly.

His heart nearly broke at the sound, yet at the same time swelled with joy. She was dreaming of him. All his fears faded when he looked at her face, and he leaned down and kissed her hair. He felt calm for a minute, but stiffened when he heard her next words.

"No, don't hurt him..." She said, sounding scared.

"No, please! Take me.." Logan clenched his fists, realizing that it was those monsters that caused her nightmare.

"Don't rape me again..." She sobbed out in her sleep, and Logan froze.

His fists turned white, and his jaw was clenched so hard that he thought it would break. Not that he cared.

Someone had raped _his_ Veronica.

And Logan made a promise to himself right there. His eyes clouded over in a red haze, and vengeance was set in his heart. He would kill the bastard that hurt her.

A tiny sob broke his angry daze. He snapped his head to the tiny blonde, quickly wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her tightly. He kissed her hair again.

As he silently stroked her hair while staring up at the ceiling, he still only had one thing on his mind.

Revenge.

----------------

I am evil!

Haha well next chapter there will be some development on this... but I can tell you that Veronica won't find out what Logan knows just yet.

Personally, I love Angry Logan, he is extremely sexy, don't you agree? As good as if not better than Jealous Logan and Protective Logan.

As always, I'm open to reviews.

Much love.

Lilly


	6. Inside Out

Whoooo! the next chapter! I know some of you were a little anxious about this chapter, and I hope it was worth the wait. I love your reviews, by the way, they make me smile and they also make me want Logan, but then again, what doesn't?

And let me clarify something. I was asked about the whole Veronica/Duncan breakup thing, and how he would avoid her more if he thought she was his sister, and I just wanted to say that in this fic, they broke up because they just didn't work anymore. Duncan was acting distant because he had a tiny crush on Meg, and Veronica sensed this and they broke up. There is NO incest scare, at least not yet. *winks & nudges*

Alright, story time!

Chapter Six

-Inside Out-

Saturday, December 6th

Logan hadn't slept well. He had stayed up till 5 AM trying to calm himself down, and just staring down at the girl in his arms, thinking to himself. His sleep was short and somehow restless, and his eyes cracked open about two hours later. Veronica hadn't woken up yet, and he didn't have the heart to do it.

It took a lot of strength to get out of the bed and let her go from his grasp, but he managed it. He ambled towards the door and quickly threw it open, stumbling through the hallway to the living room.

Dick was passed out on the floor, his face contorted into a deeply unattractive snore. Logan recognized Luke and Enbom draped across the furniture near him, and would've chuckled had the circumstances been different. He was on a mission.

Scanning the living room once more, he dug out his cell phone from his pocket and pressed speed dial.

"'the fuck are you waking me up for, bastard?" Lilly's sleepy voice answered.

"Where are you?" He asked, impatient.

"Upstairs, trying to be asleep but being interrupted."

"I need to ask you something, I'll be up in a minute." Logan flipped his phone shut quickly and leaped up the stairs, two at a time. Once he got up there, he quickly surveyed each of the rooms before bursting into the master bedroom to find Lilly sitting up in the bed, clad only in her bra, with a sleeping guy right beside her. Lilly grinned.

"Told you I'd bang the hot senior. Adrian was great." Logan would've been amused at any other time, but now he was just too focused on his anger to think of anything else.

"Lilly, I don't care about that right now. I need to ask you something, and I swear to god if you don't answer it honestly, I will kick your sorry little ass out of this house and out of my life." Lilly registered that Logan was being completely serious, and that this had to be something big. She leapt out of the bed, not even bothering to put any clothes on, and stood in front of him, concern etched on her face.

"Logan, you're scaring me, what's wrong?" Her eyes searched his face and discovered that his jaw was clenched tight, teeth grinding together, and his eyes were hard and cold. He opened his mouth to speak.

"What did Veronica tell you about what happened to her when she was kidnapped?" Lilly's expression turned from concerned to confused.

"She never told me anything, we all learned about what happened from the doctor, remember? She was physically abused. Veronica never talks about it. " Logan could see the genuine confusion and sincerity in her eyes, and he sighed in defeat. He sat down on the ground, leaning against the wall and put his head in his hands.

"Logan, did something happen?" Lilly sat down beside him, putting her hand comfortingly on his arm. Logan didn't look up at her.

"Yeah, something happened two months ago. Something the doctor forgot to mention." This time, Logan looked up at her and she was stunned to see that his eyes were watery. Logan never cried. In all her life, Lilly Kane had never seen Logan Echolls cry. Not when his dad beat him to a bloody pulp, not when his mom drained all the bottles in California, and not when all the people in his life let him down.

In that moment, she knew what happened.

"She was..." She couldn't finish the sentence, it was just too horrifying.

"...raped." Logan meant it to come out sounding hard and angry, but it came out as a broken whisper. There was silence for a minute as Lilly processed this information, thinking about how Veronica was dealing and why she didn't want them to know. Her thoughts turned to Logan, and she could only imagine how awful he must have been feeling. She knew that Logan blamed himself for everything that happened to other people.

"How did you find out?"

"She talks in her sleep. She

After she couldn't take the silence anymore, Lilly asked the question that was on both their minds.

"What are we going to do now?"

The two looked at each other and their expressions reflected each other's. They were two teenagers faced with issues too big for them. All their lives they'd been through things that no person should ever have to face, especially at that young an age. This was just an addition to the already overloaded plate. The gravity of the situation hit them full force, like a ton of bricks falling from the sky, threatening to smother them at any moment.

"We can't tell her. She'll freak out." Lilly said finally.

"And we can't just let this go. They didn't catch every one of those guys. The rapist or... rapists could still be out there." Logan choked on the word, 'rapists.'

"So we pull a P.I. We conduct our own investigation, and we find out what the hell happened. And then we get our justice, just like that. You do realize we'll have to tell her, though. And we can't wait too long, it's not something we can just put on the back burner. And when she finds out, she's going to be mad. Or she'll freak out, maybe both." Lilly said, choosing her words carefully.

"I don't care. I just want this guy dead." Logan said it with such conviction that Lilly just stared at him. In her staring, all the pieces clicked together, and she knew.

"So you love her." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Logan returned her stare and his gaze never faltered.

"Yeah, I really do." And despite the awful situation they were in, Lilly managed a genuine smile.

"You guys would be great together." Lilly's smile didn't falter and Logan managed a half-smile for a moment.

"Alright, I guess I'd better go check on Veronica," Logan said finally. He got up from where they were sitting, and Lilly made a motion to do the same.

"I'll go with you," Lilly said, concern in her eyes. He shook his head.

"It'll be better if I just explain last night to her. I'm sure she'll be a little overwhelmed when she wakes up. She probably won't remember anything." He glanced over to the bed, staring at the boy who looked almost comatose. "And I think you might have some 'splain to do to your boytoy when he awakens - if he ever does. I think you might've been too rough." Logan chuckled and Lilly seemed to finally remember that the boy was there.

"Oh! I forgot about him. Hope he's not mad at me for seducing him. I do quite like the boy." She tried to sound serious, but she smiled as she said it. Logan shook his head again and walked out of the room.

He walked downstairs and through the living room where most people were still passed out and walked down the hallway. He walked into the guest bedroom where Veronica still lay on the bed, peaceful as ever. He shut the door quietly and walked towards the windows, shutting the blinds so as not to wake her with the harsh sunlight. Unfortunately, he stumbled over a table when he was shutting the blinds, and it made a loud noise as a lamp fell over. Veronica shot up in bed, looking over in his direction.

"Logan?" She looked more than a little confused.

"Oh.. hey. Sorry, I was trying to be quiet. That failed epicly." Logan sighed and went over to sit down on the edge of the bed.

"What... what happened? I don't remember anything of last night!" Logan could hear the panic start to creep into her voice and crawled across the bed to hold her.

"Calm down, nothing happened last night, okay? I'll tell you everything, just don't freak out, okay?" Veronica only nodded, trying to keep her cool.

"First of all, what do you remember of last night?" Veronica's face was a mixture between panicked and confused.

"I took a couple of your drinks at the bar. Lilly and I went off to the bathroom, and then the last thing I remember is going back to pick up my drink. Logan, what happened to me?" Veronica's eyes searched his frantically and he sighed.

"Veronica, I think someone put some GHB in your drink. It's fine in small doses, it's supposed to make you feel happy and relaxed, but if you take too much it can hurt you. I know it was going around the party, Luke and Casey got some in TJ last weekend." Veronica's face turned from confused to panicked.

"Why would someone put GHB in my drink?" Logan wanted to throw up or punch the bastard who did it at any of the possible answers to that question. Veronica noticed the discomfort and anger on his face and decided to ask another question.

"What did I do?" He looked at her for a minute.

"Are you sure you want to know?" He asked cautiously.

"Oh my god, it's that bad? Really?" She moaned and put her head in her hands. "I'm going to find out from the rumor mill anyway, aren't I? Might as well tell me now."

"You might've maybe got up on the bar and danced...." At the horrified look on Veronica's face, he wasn't sure if he should continue, but she would hear about it anyway. "...with Lilly. It got a tad faux-lesbian... it elicited some cheering from the guys in the crowd." At the last part, his voice got stiff and it was hard to contain the anger in it.

"Oh god, I really did that? It would be less embarrassing if I remembered it." Veronica flopped down on the bed, lying down, and Logan lay next to her. It was hard to be around her now knowing what he knew, but he had to push it to the back of his mind for appearance's sake.

"Promise you're not leaving anything out?" Veronica asked, twisting her head so that she faced him. Logan inwardly cringed.

'Just that you sleeptalk.' He fought away that thought and put on a serious expression.

"Promise." Veronica seemed to believe his lie and nodded. She leapt out of bed in a sudden burst of energy and practically bounced around the room

"Well c'mon then. I don't have to be home for a couple of hours and it's a beautiful day. Let's do something!" She smiled, something so rare and beautiful that Logan's breath was always taken away when he saw it. He couldn't help but smile in return, although it didn't quite reach his eyes.

-----------------------------------------

Later on that night, Logan paced around his room by himself. He was contemplating how to go about the investigation of Veronica's kidnap, torture, and rape. He knew that he had to gather as much information as possible, so he began by looking up all past articles on the incident. Unfortunately, it didn't tell him anything he didn't already know. Lost, he decided that he would compile a list of everything he already knew, and then come up with some ideas as to what to do next.

He lay down on his bed, creating an investigation file and filling it with tons of information. When he surveyed what he'd written when he was done, he could tell that there were a few gaps in information. None of the articles he'd read had released all the names of the men involved in her kidnap. They named the three that were caught, but it was 'unclear' as to who else was involved, because the police had seen several get away but had lost their trail.

He knew that he wouldn't be able to get any information out of Veronica, so he had to rely on his own skills. He was sure he could get into the files at the Sheriff's Department, that was the easy part. He just had no clue what to look for. If the police didn't know who the men that escaped were or that Veronica was raped, how was he supposed to find out who had a hand in it? Still, he was sure he'd be able to find some information.

Then an idea struck him. There was no way the doctor couldn't know, he'd done a full examination. That meant that Veronica had purposely asked him to withhold information from everyone. It didn't even cross Logan's mind to be mad at her, he was so worked up about this revelation. He would definitely have to sneak into the hospital, or buy someone off or something. If he could get his hands on her file, it might be able to tell him something.

The shrill ring of his phone broke him out of his thinking, and he scrambled across the bed to answer it. He grabbed the phone and flipped it open, holding it to his ear.

"Yeah?"

"Hey man," Duncan's voice said to him.

"Oh hey, what's up?"

"Nothing much, just wanted to know if you wanted to come hang out at the beach tonight. Small gathering, it's just gonna be me, Lilly, Veronica, Luke, Dick, Meg, Casey, and Adrian, Lilly's flavor of the month. You in?"

"Yeah, sure man, what time?" Logan wasn't terribly excited about being interrupted from his thought process, but he figured he could use a break, maybe he'd come up with something new after his mind was off it for a while.

"In about an hour. Luke's supplying."

"Alright, see you then." Duncan said a quick goodbye before ending the call, and Logan flipped his phone shut with a sigh.

------------------------------------------------

Everyone had gathered at the beach an hour later and they were now sitting in front of a small fire, laughing, drinking, and playing I've Never.

"Oh my god, Meg, you've never been past first??' Lilly howled with laughter. Meg blushed.

"You know, I think it's hot that we decided to wait!" Duncan declared, kissing her passionately on the lips. Everyone cheered and made catcalls.

"DK, I was meaning to ask you how it went with Meg last night but I guess I know now," Logan said with a chuckle. Duncan just grinned, as did his new lady-friend.

"Okay, okay, my turn next!!!" Dick yelled. "I've never pissed on someone else!" Everyone gave Dick a curious look, but Dick's attention was on Luke.

"Dude, you are so dead." Luke grumbled. Everyone started laughing hysterically.

"C'mon, Luke, do tell!" Veronica said through laughter. Luke shook his head and sighed but continued anyway.

"It was last summer and me and Sean were down at the beach and he got stung by a jellyfish, and we asked for help from this lady that was near us, and she told us that urine lessens the sting. Sean was screaming so much, I had to do something!" Luke looked extremely embarrassed as his friends all cracked up at his expense.

After the laughter finally died down, Veronica exclaimed that it was her turn.

"I've never kissed a girl!" She did this deliberately so that all the guys would have to drink, and they all groaned. Not surprisingly, Lilly took a swig too. Although after she took her drink though, she got an evil glint in her eye.

"You know, Ronica, that's something that needs to be fixed." Lilly crawled over slowly to where Veronica was sitting. Veronica, laughing, started to get up.

"Lilly, no!" She got up running and Lilly quickly followed her. Their friends laughed as Lilly chased her down the beach making kissy noises. She eventually chased Veronica full circle until they were right back near the fire, and Lilly tackled her to the ground in one leap and flipped her over, and placed a passionate kiss on her lips. The guys all roared and cheered while the two girls insanely laughed.

The laughter and overall sense of fun did not fade for a long time, and Logan stared off into space after a while. He was trying to focus on the moment, but the nagging voice in his head was telling him to do something. He continued staring and thinking until Duncan's voice snapped him out of it.

"Dude, are you okay? You've been kinda out of it tonight." Duncan looked genuinely concerned, as did Meg, who had Duncan's arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Logan smiled at his friend, who returned it. Duncan and Meg were both apparently pacified by his response.

It worried him what a good liar he was.

---------------------------------

Yeah, I know, shorter than some of my other chapters, but I didn't have anything to add on to it and figured it was a good place to stop.

I'm trying to update faster, in case you didn't notice, because I have A LOT of ideas for this story that need to get written, so I'm trying to work through it as fast as I can.

As usual, I'm open to suggestions.

Reviews are love.

Lilly


	7. Sneaky Logan

Hello darlings! I'm so sorry for the extreme lack of update here, but I was very uninspired and didn't really know what to do with the story. But one reviewer made me want to come back, so that shows that reviews really do help if you want a story to keep going!

So a big thank you to "usernames are for losers" for making me want to come back. By the way, I don't know whether to be insulted or impressed by your username.

Okay, without more of my incessant ramblings, here is chapter 7!

Chapter Seven

-Sneaky Logan-

Sunday, December 7th

Logan wasn't known for his sneakiness. Being the son of Aaron and Lynn Echolls, why would he ever need it? He usually didn't bother to keep his parties a secret, didn't bother to keep from being photographed by the paparazzi. And he discovered that when he did try to keep some things private, he was **really** bad at it.

So that presented a problem for him today. How was he going to sneak into the hospital to take a look at Veronica's files if everyone in the place knew his face?

He couldn't call one of his friends to do it for him. Dick, Luke, Casey, Enbom and all the other guys were not exactly the kings of subtlety. He obviously couldn't call Duncan, since he would be just as famous, at least in this town. He was annoyed that he also couldn't call Lilly for this reason, because she was the only one who knew about this little operation.

But then an idea struck him. What if he didn't need subtlety? What if he didn't need someone who could sneak in and out unnoticed?

Quickly, he dialed the number he knew by heart. It rang three times, and Logan silently prayed that the person would pick up. He was losing hope and about to hang up as the fourth ring started, but then a click sounded and a voice broke through the ring tone.

"Hello?"

Logan smiled and quickly relayed his plan.

-----------------------------------------------------

Lilly's car pulled into his driveway, and Logan quickly opened the door and hopped in, smiling at her as he did it.

"Are you sure about this little plan of yours, boy?" Lilly demanded.

"If you cause a big enough of a show, then it should be absolutely foolproof." Lilly eyed him suspiciously, and he just grinned in response.

"If this doesn't work, and we're caught, I'm telling them you blackmailed me into this and that I am completely innocent." Logan turned his head to look out the window to hide his chuckle.

"The infamous Lilly Kane saying the words 'I am innocent.' Never thought I'd see the day." Lilly scoffed but her mischeivous smile betrayed her.

They pulled into the Neptune Memorial parking lot and Lilly turned off the car and looked over at him.

"You ready to cause some trouble?" He asked her. She smiled like a Cheshire cat.

"Always, darling." He grinned and they both jumped out of the car and strolled through the parking lot, Lilly perfecting her 'angry walk' all the way there.

When they finally burst through the doors to the hospital, that was when she started the screaming.

"I MEAN REALLY, I WAS IN HERE THREE FUCKING WEEKS AGO FOR THIS STUPID FREAKING BROKEN ARM AND THEY PUT THIS SHITTY COLORED PINK CAST ON IT AND SAY "OH JUST TAKE SOME PAINKILLERS IF IT HURTS" AND ITS THREE WEEKS LATER AND ITS STILL FUCKING HURTING!!!!" Lilly screamed out all in one breath. Logan was impressed.

The nurses around all jumped when they heard Lilly's tirade and some rushed over to help her. There were still a couple nurses around the file cabinets where he needed to be, so he gave Lilly a head nod that hopefully she would take as her cue to amp it up a little.

"I CAN'T EVEN WRITE WITH MY LEFT HAND ANYMORE, I USED TO BE AMBIDEXTROUS BEFORE I HAD THIS FUCKING PINK PIECE OF SHIT ATTACHED TO MY ARM!!! IT'S BAD ENOUGH THAT I HAVE ONLY ONE HAND TO USE ON MY BOYFRIEND I DON'T WANT IT TO BE IN FUCKING PAIN ALL THE TIME TOO!" Lilly was storming around the large room at that point, her screaming getting the attention of every nurse in the place. Some were trying to calm her while others were trying to restrain her. One nurse put her hand on her cast and Lilly knocked it off, running even further away from the file cabinets and screaming like a lunatic. Logan slowly inched toward the file cabinets, which stood unguarded.

He cursed as he realized that he needed a key to get in the cabinets. He couldn't believe he'd been so stupid. Just as he was about to walk away, a large set of keys landed before him. Amazed, he looked over at Lilly, who was still screaming but had now escalated to throwing things. She looked over at him whilst still screaming and gave him a subtle wink and continued to trash the nurses' station.

He quickly turned around and started testing every key he could in the cabinet. The only problem was that there were a LOT of keys. He hoped that Lilly could distract the nurses long enough for him to find the right one.

"AREN'T YOU GUYS DOCTORS?! DOCTORS FIX PEOPLE'S MEDICAL PROBLEMS! WELL I WENT TO A DOCTOR 3 WEEKS AGO AND IM STILL FUCKED!!!!" If possible, Lilly's screaming got louder and Logan chuckled, still frantically trying to find the key.

"MY FATHER IS GOING TO BE PISSED WHEN HE HEARS ABOUT THIS!!!!" Lilly shouted. Uh oh, Logan thought, she's pulling out the big guns. She must not have much material left.

His hands fumbled with the keys and panicking, he stuck in a little bronze key and by some miracle, it worked. Sighing in relief, he turned the key and opened the cabinet as quietly as possible.

"JESUS CHRIST IS IT POSSIBLE TO GET A COMPETENT DOCTOR UP IN THIS BITCH!?"

Logan searched through all the "M" last names, stealing glances at Lilly and the crowd of frightened nurses to calculate how much time he had. Finally, he found what he was looking for. He grabbed the file as quickly as possible and stuck it sneakily in his jacket. Closing the cabinet and locking it, he walked over to the nurses station and tried to look as if he'd been there the whole time, subtly placing the keys back on the hook where they belonged. Then he fought his way through the nurses and approached Lilly.

"Honey, I think it's time we get you home now." Lilly caught on to what he was saying and winked, but they had to make it believable so she continued.

"NOT BEFORE I GET SOME FREAKING MEDICAL ADVICE!" Logan grabbed on to her arm, pulling her away. He turned to the nurses.

"I'm terribly sorry about this, she forgot to take her ADHD meds this morning and she's having rather violent mood swings due to her PMS, we'll pay for whatever's damaged," He said with a traditional Echolls smile. A few nurses melted and quickly smiled back while others just waved their hands as a signal to take her away or just shook their heads at the apparent brattiness of Lilly Kane.

Logan pulled Lilly out of the hospital as she screamed. When they finally were outside the doors, Lilly immediately stopped screaming and pulled out of Logan's grasp.

"That was quite a show you put on, O Spoilt Brat," Logan chuckled.

"Hell yeah it was. I am fabulous, after all. Now please tell me my 'PMS Bitchfest' was worth it?" Logan smirked and pulled the file out of his jacket. Lilly grinned.

"We'll make a spy team yet, Mr. Echolls!" And with that, she skipped happily to her car while Logan looked after her and chuckled.

---------------------------------------------------------

Lilly dropped Logan off at his house soon after that, demanding that he call her once he figured out anything. He went through his house unnoticed, probably because Trina was out with her friends and his parents were off at some party or another.

He ran up the stairs and into his room, shutting the door behind him. He flopped on the bed and tore open the file he'd been waiting to read ever since he first laid eyes on it.

Scanning the page, he saw the details of the physical abuse Veronica was subjected to. Multiple contusions, a broken left wrist, scars along her wrists from fighting from restraints, a cut that needed stitches along her forehead, mild concussion... all things he already knew.

But then he found something he hadn't known... 29 scars on her back. The doctor had written in a note on the report that the patient had confirmed they were from a belt.

Logan felt nauseous. He had known what that pain had felt like since he was only 5. It was excruciating. To be whipped 29 times with a belt.... on a body as small as Veronica's.... he didn't how she'd done it. She must have been very strong. As he realized this, he couldn't help but feel proud of her for surviving through everything and managing to escape alive by fighting back. It comforted him somehow.

He turned to the next page, dreading it's contents. This was the page of the report that described the sexual abuse. Feeling his stomach churn, he began reading the report.

Multiple bruises on her pelvis. Hymen torn. Numerous scars. Logan swallowed the lump in his throat and forced himself to keep reading. It was mostly just the doctor explaining signs of sexual abuse, confirmation from the patient.

It was then that he saw it. The doctor had written in his notes: "Patient confirmed sexual abuse in the form of multiple rapes by three men."

Three men had raped Veronica. Multiple times.

He threw the file aside and rushed to the bathroom, emptying the contents of his stomach into the toilet for the second time that weekend. When he was done, he went over to the sink and splashed water on his face, popping a piece of gum in his mouth to get rid of the sour taste.

He couldn't wrap his mind around it. He couldn't understand how people could ever be that cruel to a poor, innocent girl. And he couldn't believe how Veronica had survived it all, and could smile and be happy like every other normal teenage girl after that horrifying experience. She was violated in the worst possible way, and yet she chose to live her life like she normally would have, not letting them have the satisfaction of seeing her fall.

Suddenly he respected Veronica Mars more than anyone else in the world.

Finally collecting himself, he walked out of the bathroom and sat on his bed again. He needed to sort out his thoughts.

First, now he knew how many people he was looking for. Three men had raped Veronica. If he could find out the names of those men, which he assumed would undoubtedly be in the police report, he could find out which ones were in jail, dead, injured, or on the run.

He almost wished that all 3 were on the run, so he could track them down and make every one of them pay for their crime.

He called Lilly and told her about the report soon after that, and she started to cry. Logan didn't really know how to comfort her over the phone, so he just stayed silent while she cried for her best friend. Eventually she stopped crying and reminded him that they now needed to sneak into the police department, and that a distraction, even one as big as herself, wouldn't do the trick for trained cops. He sighed at that, and told her he'd try and think of something. Then they said their goodbyes and hung up the phone, knowing they'd see each other tomorrow at school.

--------------------------------------------

Monday, December 8th

The next day saw Logan with purple circles under his eyes from lack of sleep. He had been trying to think of a way to sneak into the Police Department, but as of yet, he had no ideas. He knew one person that could come up with a foolproof way to sneak in and grab the report unnoticed, and she was the very person whose case file he was stealing.

He parked the Xterra next to Lilly's car and groggily got out of his car, only to be met with a perky, blonde ball of sunshine.

"Good morning Logaaaan." Veronica singsonged. Even in his tired state, his mood was exponentially better just by hearing her voice.

"What's got you so energetic and annoyingly bubbly?" He asked, rubbing his eyes to adjust to the harsh morning sunlight.

"You see, I have realized that this is our last two weeks of school before Winter Break, and suddenly I am filled with Christmas cheer." She smiled happily, practically jumping up and down all around him. He smiled a little.

"I'm not taking you to go see Santa at the mall," He said dryly. She stopped her bouncing and frowned. Logan laughed and tapped her nose.

"You're so easy to rile up, Sugarpuss. Where's that Christmas cheer?" This made her smile again and Logan's heart beat a little faster.

"C'mon. Let's go meet Lilly and Duncan before he bores her to death," she said, grabbing his hand and practically running towards the school, much to his protest.

When they finally reached Lilly and Duncan, who was with Meg, Logan had a tiny pout on his face while Veronica seemed to be bursting with joy. Lilly took one look at the pair and burst out laughing.

"What's got your panties in a twist, Logey?" She asked. Logan scowled. Veronica started the bouncing again.

"LILLLLLY aren't you excited? It's nearly Christmas!!!" Veronica practically screamed. Lilly's eyes widened and she took Veronica's hand.

"Calm down, wild child, it's really not that big a deal. We still have two weeks of school left and then an entire semester to deal with." Veronica stopped bouncing and pouted. Logan wrapped his arms around her, effectively smothering her into his chest.

"Lilly, you should know better than to ruin Tiny Blonde One's hyperactiveness." Veronica said something, but it was muffled by his shirt. "Even though it is rather annoying when some of us aren't as excited at this early hour." This time when Veronica said something, it was clearly heard as a loud "FUCK YOU."

Logan laughed and released her from his smothering, but still not letting her go. He rested his head on hers and smiled as an apology.

"I'm sorry darling, your energy is quite endearing," he said with a smirk. Veronica smiled and hugged him, and he hugged her back. Logan caught Lilly's eye and she gave him a meaningful look. He looked over at Duncan and Meg to find them giving him the exact same look. He scowled again, and the other three smirked.

The bell rang right after that, and Logan reluctantly released Veronica from his hold, saying his quick goodbyes to everyone and watching her practically skip down the hall before walking to his first class.

------------------------------------

In third period, Logan was listening to Mrs. Murphy drone on about some poet or another, and he was very, very bored. But then he had a bright idea. He figured he could subtly ask Duncan if he had any idea about how to sneak into the sheriff's department to steal the police report. If anyone was going to know about his secret investigation, it would be Duncan. He figured he might have some useful advice, he was the son of a billionaire software genius.

Quickly, he scribbled down a note and passed it to the boy appearing to pay rapt attention to the monotous lecture that was seated beside him. Duncan never took his eyes off the teacher as he unfolded the note and darted his eyes down to read it.

_Theoretically, how would one sneak into a sheriff's department and steal a police report and walk back out unnoticed?_

King of subtle, Logan was not.

Duncan's eyes widened and his eyebrows raised. Then he took his pencil and furiously scribbled a reply.

_Are you crazy?! What could possibly be in the sheriff's department that you need? Did you start selling crack or something?!?_

He then handed the note back to an overly eager Logan, who ripped it open and scoffed when he saw his friend's reply. He jotted down his response and handed it back to Duncan.

_No crack, I promise. I just really need to get my hands on a certain file... I can't tell you why._

Duncan look incredulous, but wrote a reply nonetheless.

_You are trying to steal from a sheriff's department. Do you see the irony in this? And do you see what the consequences are if you're caught? This is highly illegal, you realize that._

He gave the note back to his friend, and Logan rolled his eyes at DK's lack of adventure and worry.

_Yes, I'm aware, -In-A-Twist. But it's really important. You know I wouldn't do it if it wasn't. _

It was true. Duncan did know that even Logan wouldn't steal a file from the police department unless he absolutely needed to. He wasn't that stupid. So he sighed and reluctantly wrote his response.

_Well, I'm pretty sure they keep most of their files on the computer these days. That means you'd either have to go in there, somehow get an administrator's password, download the file, email it to yourself if you don't want it to go missing, and get out of there all without being seen. Unless you can find someone to hack into the network without asking questions... and who can get in and out without being noticed._

Logan read his friend's advice and groaned. He didn't think he knew anyone, not out of his dad's friends or his own, that could hack into a highly secure network, much less anyone who would be willing. He had to think of a plan B.

Just then, Duncan quietly handed the note back to him, with new words written below the ones he'd written before.

_I think I might know a girl to get the job done. I don't know her that well, but I know she's good with computers, and seriously needs the cash. _

Hope flickered in Logan's eyes. He sat up in his seat and quickly wrote his response.

_Who?_

Duncan jotted down his answer and handed the note back to him.

_Her name's Mac. You can probably find her in the computer lab or the parking lot. She's got blue streaks in her hair. _

And with that, Logan sat back in his seat and smiled, glad to know he was going somewhere.

----------------------------------------

After some good-natured flirting with Veronica and teasing of the sappy mess that was Duncan and Meg at lunch, Logan decided to skip fifth in search of this "Mac" character. All it took was a little flirting with a perky sophomore working the front desk to find out that Mac had her free period during this one. Logan smiled at the girl in gratitude, before turning his back and sticking his tongue out in disgust at her desperate flirting attempt to get his attention.

He then set off in the direction of the computer lab. Duncan did not lie. A girl with brown hair that had a couple bright blue streaks down the side sat alone in the computer lab, smiling to herself at whatever she was looking at.

"Hey, I'm -" He began, but the girl cut him off.

"Logan Echolls. King of Neptune High and leader of the '09ers." She didn't spare a glance from her computer screen. Logan took a few steps toward her.

"Ah. My reputation precedes me. You failed to mention that I'm also the son of Aaron Echolls, renowned movie star." He said the last part with a bit of a sarcastic edge. Mac's face contorted into one of disgust.

"Don't like Aaron Echolls."

He liked this girl already.

"So what would Logan Echolls be doing skipping class and striking up a conversation in a computer lab with a girl he's never said two words to? And I know it's not just because you want to be friends," she said, spinning her chair around to finally face him.

"Then you're a smart girl. I actually heard you were good with computers." Mac nodded briefly.

"Is that why they call you Mac?"

"You'd think. But no, actually my last name's Mackenzie. What do you need? Broken laptop or something?" She asked.

"No, something a little bigger than that. Two things you should know. One, it's pretty illegal. Two, i'd be willing to pay you very handsomely for this," he said cautiously. He really didn't want her to turn down this offer because he really had no other idea. She looked at him warily, but gave a slight nod.

"What exactly is it that you need me to do?"

So he gave her a brief overlook of what he asked of her, leaving out why he needed the file.

"Wow. That is pretty illegal and I'm sure it's slightly more than difficult," she said finally. She leaned back in her chair and put her arms behind her head, contemplating. "How much am I going to get for doing this?"

"How much do you want?" He asked in reply. She seemed to think about it for a minute.

"$3,000." Logan raised his eyebrows.

"I was willing to pay you $5,000." Mac looked dumbstruck, and Logan laughed. After a minute, Mac cracked a smile. Then he turned serious again.

"Look, this is really important. I appreciate you doing this and I swear if you're caught you can tell them I blackmailed you into this and wanted nothing to do with it," he said evenly. The smile faded from her face.

"You're really serious about this, aren't you?" Logan only nodded in response. Mac nodded back and then made a show of stretching.

"In that case, I'm gonna need some serious caffeine, Echolls. I'm going to be up all night doing this. Gimme your number and I'll call you when I have results."

Logan grinned.

-------------------------------------

yayy the investigation has finally started going! And I introduced Mac!

I promise I will try and have the next chapter up ASAP. And lots more Logan and Veronica lovin' coming up, I promise.

Reviews, as always, are love.

Lilly


End file.
